THE NEWS MAGAZINE FOR MUSIC PRODUC TS RETAILERS
February 2021 Volume 38, No. 2
Un-Believe-able Although nothing can replace an in-person show, NAMM’s Believe in Music Week was the best a virtual event gets
ANOTHER 21 PRODUCTS FOR ‘21 We follow up January’s Product Showcase with 21 more products to stock at your stores
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Guitar Center Honors Eddie Van Halen Guitar Center unveiled a new mural of Eddie Van Halen on the outside wall of its flagship store in Hollywood, Calif., located on the famous Sunset Strip. Since Jan. 26 marked the late guitar legend’s 66th birthday, muralist Robert Vargas teamed with Guitar Center to pay tribute to the legacy of Van Halen with this striking mural, which depicts Eddie playing his iconic “Frankenstrat” guitar. Vargas donated his time and talent to design and create the mural, which measures approximately 17 feet tall by 105 feet long and covers the entirety of the store’s outer wall at its rear entrance. “Eddie was one of my creative heroes,” Vargas said. “When I was young, the debut Van Halen record was the first album I ever owned. He influenced me over the years in so many different ways. As soon as the
news hit of his passing, I knew I had to do something creative to memorialize him, and Guitar Center was the obvious venue. Right here on the Sunset Strip, where the band made its bones — I can’t think of a better place for this tribute to him, and I
Chris Martin Donates $100K to NAMM Foundation
Christian Martin IV, chairman and CEO of C.F Martin, announced he and his wife Diane donated $100,000 to the NAMM Foundation. He also encouraged others to make donations, if possible, to help those in need during the pandemic. Martin and Jacqueline Renner, president of C.F. Martin, also discussed many other topics, including the company’s executive transition, during “A Conversation with Chris Martin and Jackie Renner,” which was presented on Jan. 19 during NAMM’s Believe in Music Week. Martin will transition to executive chairman of the company, while Renner will retire. A search for a new president and CEO of C.F. Martin is underway. Martin stressed he will still appear at trade shows, as well as MI retail stores in the future, to convey the C.F. Martin story. He confirmed future NAMM Shows will have both an in-person and virtual component to reach many around the world that cannot attend the Anaheim show. Renner added she hopes to travel, if the pandemic allows, as well as join the boards of directors of family-owned businesses. “We will make sure the new person on board gets all of our support,” said Renner. “We will do our best to make it a smooth transition.” Looking back on his 35 years at C.F. Martin, Chris Martin said he has learned to listen well to other people. He added many of his best memories involved going to trade shows and traveling all over the world. Renner added relationships with partners provided many of her best moments as company president for the past five years. She stated the best way to lead is by utilizing your strengths. “Lead with your heart and your mind,” said the first female president in C.F. Martin history. Martin concluded the future of C.F. Martin looks bright. “I have a feeling there will be more opportunities for us,” he said. “I am not sure what those are yet. But I hope they are interesting and rewarding.”
thank Guitar Center for giving me the canvas to share it with the world.” Guitar Center’s Hollywood location has a history of paying tribute to Eddie Van Halen, with his handprints being a centerpiece and main attraction of Guitar Center’s iconic RockWalk outside the store, along with several of his prized instruments and other memorabilia on display behind glass. In addition to the monumental Eddie Van Halen mural on the
flagship Guitar Center Hollywood store wall, the store also features a Jimi Hendrix mural, unveiled Nov. 3, 2018, in tribute to the musician. Outside the entrance to the store are concrete blocks bearing the signatures and handprints from more than 150 notable musicians (including Van Halen), producers, iconic bands, and music instrument manufacturers which have been recognized for achievements with induction into the world famous RockWalk.
THE NEWS MAGAZINE FOR MUSIC PRODUC TS RETAILERS
VOLUME 38, NO.2
COVER STORIES 18 Un-Believe-able
Although nothing can replace an in-person show, NAMM’s Believe in Music Week was the best a virtual event gets.
26 Another 21 Products for ‘21
We follow up the presentation of 21 products being featured at Believe in Music Week last month with 21 more products.
FEATUR ES 28 Five Minutes With
Although many of its products are used at schools, symphonies and orchestras, Manhasset Specialty Co. has adjusted. Find out how, as well as what has made the company so successful for 86 years, from president Dan Roberts.
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30 MI Spy
MI Spy follows up December’s visit to New Jersey with another one this month.
36 Shine a Light
Montana’s Hell Creek Music & More is anything but your typical MI store.
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38 Under the Hood
EVH, a portfolio brand of Fender Musical Instruments Corp., is making sure Eddie Van Halen is never forgotten.
46 The Final Note
Hosa Technology’s Hoyt Binder grew up in the country of Panama, where his parents were missionaries. He was blessed to be around an indigenous tribe called The Wounaan and learn a lot about its ancient culture.
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COL UM NS 32 Grassroots Marketing
A parking lot at an MI store is much more valuable than just a place to park cars. Learn what Mike Risko Music did during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic to utilize this space.
34 In the Trenches
Missing or delayed postal packages can be a huge hassle for MI store owners. Here’s how to handle this potential headache.
35 Veddatorial
While the pandemic has pushed a lot of people online out of necessity, many of them miss physical shopping, or have had enough order glitches and problems with online shopping that the honeymoon is over, states Dan Vedda.
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EDITORIAL
Virtual NAMM Thoughts Last year at this time, we were were able to attend The NAMM Show without a hitch, although word of a mysterious virus in Wuhan, China, was already spreading. Attendees of this year’s virtual NAMM Show, called Believe in Music Week, which took place from Jan. 18-22, had differing opinions on the event. But before I discuss the positives and negatives, I want to stress that anything I did not like was in no way NAMM’s fault. If you asked NAMM president and CEO Joe Lamond 1,000 times if he wanted to stage a virtual show or an in-person show, I believe he would choose an in-person event all 1,000 times. The State of California would not have allowed The NAMM Show to take place this year, even if it was considered. And no other large trade show I am aware of has been able to stage an in-person event recently. So, NAMM did a whale of a job with the hand they were dealt and should be applauded for that. Now, on to the pros and cons of Believe in Music Week. Pro: The education sessions were as good as they have been at past in-person events. In fact, in some ways, I prefer the virtual education sessions. Sure, I missed the free breakfasts, but there were no long lines to get into the ballroom, and no rush for the limited amount of open seats (which was a welcome change, since those NAMM Breakfast Sessions tend to become standing-room-only minutes after the doors open). Also, NAMM’s interview sessions and virtual award presentations to Melissa Etheridge and Garth Brooks were excellent. Pro: Manufacturers created well-produced videos about their brand and/or products, many of which were fun to watch. An example is the Hosa Technology video I watched on Jan. 18 about company founder Sho Sato and his daughter. The video’s production quality was fantastic. Con: Not being able to see anyone in person. This is obvious, but those in-person meetings are also what make
The NAMM Show great. Even if it is just passing someone in the hall and saying a brief “hello,” it makes the show experience much better. Con: Live music is just not the same on Zoom or other platforms. Since the pandemic began, I have tried to enjoy live music online. It has not worked. There is nothing like being in a crowd and hearing music played live, and the online experience unfortunately does not replicate it. (Not to mention, most of our computers aren’t equipped with speakers that can rival the sound systems of live event venues.) Con: The missed chance to enjoy the beautiful California weather. (Being based in New York, I had to throw that in.) The conclusion: I certainly think having a virtual component to complement the in-person NAMM Show makes plenty of sense in the future, hopefully starting next year. Education sessions should be a main focus of future virtual events. This way, store employees who cannot make it to Anaheim, Calif., can still enjoy the many benefits of the invaluable advice education sessions provide. However, other aspects of the virtual show, like virtual retailer appointments with manufacturers, can likely be de-emphasized as we return to an in-person show. These types of meetings make much more sense for retailers who attend The NAMM Show in person; the retailers can make the commitment to have uninterrupted time for meetings, as opposed to conducting these meetings remotely from their stores while competing with the phone ringing often and all the incoming emails. Call me traditional, but I believe the in-person NAMM Show should never flame out. I hope it never does.
February 2021 Volume 38 No. 2
THE ALL NEW RADIANT PAR SERIES
BRIAN BERK Editor bberk@testa.com ANTHONY VARGAS Associate Editor avargas@testa.com AMANDA MULLEN Assistant Editor amullen@testa.com DONOVAN BANKHEAD ROBERT CHRISTIE KIMBERLY DEVERELL JEFF KYLE JR.
JANICE PUPELIS Art Director STEVE THORAKOS Production Manager CIRCULATION circulation@testa.com FRED GUMM Digital Art Director
ELLEN LEVITT MICHELLE LOEB WILL MASON ALLEN MCBROOM
ROBERT L. IRAGGI Advertising Director riraggi@testa.com RICKY PIMENTEL Art/Production Assistant rpimentel@testa.com ROBIN HAZAN Operations Manager rhazan@testa.com VINCENT P. TESTA President/Publisher GABRIEL O'BRIEN MIKE & MIRIAM RISKO TIM SPICER DAN VEDDA
Editorial and Sales Office: The Music & Sound Retailer, 25 Willowdale Avenue, Port Washington, New York 11050-3779. Phone: (516) 767-2500 • Fax: (516) 767-9335 • MSREDITOR@TESTA.COM. Editorial contributions should be addressed to The Editor, The Music & Sound Retailer, 25 Willowdale Avenue, Port Washington, New York 11050-3779. Unsolicited manuscripts will be treated with care and must be accompanied by return postage.
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Sound & Communications • DJ Times • Sound & Communications Blue Book The Music & Sound Retailer • The DJ Expo • IT/AV Report The Retailer Report • Convention TV @ NAMM • InfoCommTV News VTTV Studios The Music & Sound Retailer (ISSN 0894-1238) (USPS 0941-238) is published 12 times a year for $18 (US), by Retailer Publishing, Inc., 25 Willowdale Ave., Port Washington, NY 11050-3779. Periodicals postage paid at Port Washington, N.Y. and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Music & Sound Retailer, PO BOX 1767, LOWELL MA 01853-1767.
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FEBRUARY 2021
I Believe in Music... And the people who bring music to the world. We know that music has the power to orchestrate more than just sound and music to our ears. It has the power to enhance creative thinking & problem-solving and inspire. Music has the unique ability to unite, build hope and boost the soul.
Together, we must continue to Believe in Music and invest collectively. We are proud to be a part of the NAMM family and engage our team in Believe in Music Week. It is good for business but even better for how we build upon our culture and live our mission.
DeDe Heid President, Heid Music
Don’t Stop Believing! • Select content and registration is available on demand through February 28, 2021. Log in to believeinmusic.tv. • Register at attend.believeinmusic.tv
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Gibson Teams With Orianthi
Gibson announced a new partnership with Australian-born guitarist Orianthi Panagaris, known in the music industry as Orianthi. The new Gibson Orianthi SJ-200 Custom in Cherry will be available worldwide this May. “Creating a signature acoustic with the amazing Gibson team was truly an honor. I couldn’t be happier!” said Orianthi. “It’s the same full SJ-200 sound, but it plays much faster with a 345 neck on it, and with the modified unique LR Baggs custom pickup, it’s a balanced guitar and cuts through. I can’t wait for you all to be able to pick it up and shred away on it in May.” “We are thrilled to welcome Orianthi to the Gibson family,” Elizabeth Heidt, global head of entertainment relations at Gibson, added. “We have been fans of her artistr y from the start and it is a win for Gibson to have this incredibly talented woman join us.” Orianthi has been playing for more than a decade and has collaborated with Michael Jackson, Alice Cooper, Carrie Underwood and Richie Sambora, among many others. In late 2019, Orianthi visited the Gibson Acoustic factor y in Bozeman, Mont., and a creative collaboration was born. Orianthi worked with the luthiers in the Gibson Acoustic Custom Shop to create her perfect signature guitar with a special neck modeled after a Gibson ES 345, a redesigned pickguard with Lotus Flowers, as well as mother-of-pearl dot inlays in the neck. More features include a AAA Sitka spruce top and maple back, gold Grover Keystone tuners, a distinctive Cherr y nitrocellulose lacquer finish and an LR Baggs Orianthi System, with under-saddle piezo pickup and sound hole mounted preamp and controls.
Letter to the Editor Just a quick thanks for your interview with Jen Tabor of Souldier Straps (December issue, page 54). We might have been that store she walked into (though there could have been others). We got a call one afternoon: “My band is playing at a club near you and I make guitar straps. Can I bring some by?” Having survived the macrame era, we were a little skeptical. Then Jen shows up with really cool, well-made stuff that harks back to an earlier era, but without the lacquer-eating vinyl of the old ones. She and her crew are doing good work, and we are glad to be a customer. Wil Bremer Spruce Tree Music & Repair Inc.
FEBRUARY 2021
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LPMUSIC.COM
TEC Award Winners Announced
Winners of the NAMM Technical Excellence and Creativity (TEC Awards) were announced in a virtual event on the final day of NAMM’s Believe in Music Week. Presented by NAMM on Believe TV, the annual event recognized the highest achievements in the pro-audio and sound worlds of music-making, live performances, video games, television and films. “Despite the global pandemic, the industry continued to innovate, creating one of the largest collectives of product nominees in the 35-year history of the awards,” said Eric Geer, TEC entries & nominations supervisor. “And given the world engaged in virtual interaction on an unprecedented level, the products honored helped connect us all by delivering music and sound across the world.” Find the full list of winners below:
TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT
Amplification Hardware – Studio & Sound Reinforcement: JBL — DSi 2.0 Audio Apps & Hardware/Peripherals for Smartphones & Tablets: Eventide — Blackhole Computer Audio Hardware: Universal Audio — Apollo x4 DJ Production Technology: Native Instruments — TRAKTOR KONTROL S3 Headphone/Earpiece Technology: AKG — K300 Series Large Format Console Technology: Solid State Logic — ORIGIN Microphone Preamplifiers: Neve — 1073OPX Microphones – Recording: AKG — Lyra Microphones – Sound Reinforcement: sE Electronics — V Series for Drums Musical Instrument Amplification & Effects: Ampeg — Heritage 50th Anniversary SVT Musical Instrument Hardware: Moog — Matriarch Musical Instrument Software: Celemony — Melodyne 5 Production Essentials: Audinate Dante AVIO Adapters Signal Processing Hardware: API — 2500+ Stereo Bus Compressor Signal Processing Hardware — 500 Series Modules: AMS Neve – RMX16 Signal Processing Software — Dynamics/EQ/Utilities: Universal Audio – Neve 1084 Preamp & EQ Plug-In Signal Processing Software — Effects: Waves – Abbey Road Saturator Small Format Console Technology: Allen & Heath — Avantis Sound Reinforcement Loudspeakers: JBL — EON ONE Compact Studio Monitors: Genelec — W371A Adaptive Woofer System Wireless Technology: Shure — Axient Digital AD3 plug-on wireless transmitter Workstation Technology/Recording Devices: Universal Audio — LUNA Recording System
CREATIVE ACHIEVEMENT
Studio Design Project: Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, Tisch School of the Arts, NYU-FM Design Film Sound Production: “1917,” Universal Pictures/DreamWorks Pictures/Entertainment One Interactive Entertainment Sound Production: “Star Wars Jedi – Fallen Order,” Respawn Entertainment Record Production/Album: Hyperspace, Beck, Capitol Records Record Production/Single or Track: Fear Inoculum, Tool, Tool Dissectional and Volcano and RCA Remote Production/Recording or Broadcast: “Let’s Go Crazy: The Grammy Salute to Prince,” CBS Television Sound Production: “The Mandalorian,” Disney+ MUSIC & SOUND RETAILER
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Casio America Names Ori CEO
Casio America Inc. named Makoto Ori as its new president and CEO. In his new role, Ori will continue to lead the creation and development of products by leveraging the company’s strengths. He also plans to enhance the company’s communication with end users by implementing new marketing and direct sales tactics. Ori began his career at Casio in 1993. After graduating from college in Tokyo, Japan, he started at Casio Computer Co. Ltd. as a sales planner for its calculator business in the European and North American markets. Just a few years later, he took on additional responsibilities within the company as sales planning manager for Casio United Kingdom’s calculator division. In the years that followed, Ori’s focus remained on planning and marketing calculators, as well as other product categories including pocket TVs, projectors and label printers. In 2007, Ori switched to Casio’s education business marketing and concentrated his attention on the wide range of scientific and graphing calculators and e-dictionary products. During his almost 30-year tenure at Casio, Ori has held various positions from assistant manager of product planning and marketing to senior general manager of sales and marketing, before taking on this new role.
AES Names New President
Jonathan Wyner started his term as president of the Audio Engineering Society on Jan. 1. “Jonathan has proven his leadership and vision during his year on the AES board of directors as president-elect,” said outgoing AES president Agnieszka Roginska. “The AES is in excellent hands for the coming year.” Wyner’s experience includes 30-plus years as both an active AES member and as an Jonathan Wyner audio technologist. Wyner’s professional industry involvement currently includes his roles as chief engineer at M Works Mastering, education director for iZotope in Cambridge, Mass., and professor at Berklee College of Music in Boston. “The AES is the most varied international assemblage of experts, thought leaders, researchers, manufacturers and practitioners of audio in the world,” said Wyner. “During our recent fall event, we had attendees from 82 countries. Each of us has our individual interests and goals for our work, but a passion for audio ties us together. There are so many interesting and exciting developments taking place in the world of audio. The pillars I am energized to stand up can be summed up in three words: Equity, Sustainability and Innovation.” Wyner, in addition to being an accomplished musician and performer, has mastered and produced thousands of recordings. Credits include James Taylor, David Bowie, Aerosmith, Kiri Te Kanawa, the London Symphony, Miles Davis, Semisonic, Thelonius Monk, Pink Floyd and Nirvana. Additional accolades include production of the Grammy-nominated soundtrack for the PBS special “Invention and Alchemy” (Deborah Henson-Conant, 2005), the mastering of the first recording of a full-length opera (“Madame Butterfly 1912,” BBC) and the first interactive CD game (“Play it By Ear,” Rykodisc).
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Monge Joins Remo
Arianna Monge joined Remo as the rhythm and wellness brand manager. She oversees the task of connecting rhythm and wellness-based services to those who need it the most, and driving Remo’s Rhythm, Wellness and YOU! initiative. Monge was at the forefront of the sudden shift from in-person facilitation to virtual telemedicine. She has experience in program development, implementation and facilitation via Zoom to provide support, socialization and group musicmaking for medically fragile children in times of isolation. Monge also conducted Arianna Monge a case study on the effects of caregiver engagement on client participation in music therapy telemedicine.
Triple Play
Korg USA, Inc. hired DeAnna Goldfeder as associate HR generalist. Goldfeder joins Korg with more than 10 years of HR and administrative support experience, and most recently served as human resources supervisor at Sam Ash Music, where she oversaw HR, operations, benefits, compliance and employee relations matters. As associate HR generalist at Korg, Goldfeder will support Kristin Goold, SPHR, Director, Talent Management, and will leverage her specialized knowledge of HR in the music manufacturing and DeAnna Goldfeder retail industry. While she will continue to support day-to-day HR needs, she’ll also use her skills in team building, training, and coaching to help colleagues and individuals achieve their full potential within the Korg organization. Diana Akhavan joined Korg as junior creative designer. The latest addition to Korg’s marketing communications team, Akhavan will work closely with Creative Manager Norm Morales on the implementation and execution of creative design campaigns for Korg USA brands. A recent graduate of the Fashion Institute of Technology, Diana Akhavan Akhavan majored in graphic design with a triple minor in creative technology, film and media, and art histor y. Korg also hired James Jackson as customer service/support representative. Jackson joins Korg USA with excellent customer service credentials, most recently at Samson Technologies in Hicksville, N.Y. He has extensive training in technical support, including business-to-business support for national accounts. At Korg, Jackson is responsible for giving dealers and customers the best possible experience when they contact Korg USA. James Jackson FEBRUARY 2021
In Memoriam Carma Lou Beck
Beloved Iowa music retailer Carma Lou Beck passed away on Jan. 4. She was an active musician and teacher when she began working in music retail in Iowa in the 1960s. Beck opened her own store in Cedar Rapids in 1967 after working for a few other stores, including one owned and operated by the Wurlitzer Co. By the time Carma Lou’s House of Music expanded to three stores in the mid-1970s, she had become a local celebrity, due in part by her well-known TV and radio commercials. She was a proud advocate for music education and sponsored countless programs that encouraged music making for all ages.
William Dollarhide
Longtime music retailer and industry leader William Dollarhide passed away at 74 years old. He was the president and co-owner, along with his wife Margaret, of Dollarhide’s Music Center in Pensacola, Fla. He grew up in a musical family, with his mother, who was a pianist and teacher, and his father, who was a band director. His grandfather was also a band director, so Dollarhide was proud to be the third generation of band directors. He worked for Jimmie Johnson at Mississippi Music for several years before opening his own piano store in 1988. He served on the NAMM board of directors twice, once beginning in 1987 and again from 2000 to 2003. In more recent years, he worked beside the staff at Blues Angel Music in Florida, providing his knowledge and support.
PEOPLE
Fred Tinker
Co-founder of Rodgers Instrument Co., Fred Tinker, passed away at 93 years old. Fred and Rodgers Jenkins formed the Rodgers Instrument Co. in 1958. The partnership began when their church asked if they would join the team to help purchase an organ. Fred and Rodgers thought they could build one instead. Over the years, the company introduced many innovative products, including being the first to use transistors in a musical instrument. Tinker not only led the engineering department, he also hired many key engineers over the years, including George Kirkwood.
Paul Winther
Paul Winther, who served as a music retailer in Boise, Idaho, for over 60 years, passed away from COVID-19 at 96 years old. Winther took over his parents’ music store in Boise, which was opened in 1943. He took great pride in the fact that his son Greg came into the business and would run the store after his retirement. Winther would later team with his grandson to create a piano teaching method called Easy Keys, which was based on the simple goal of providing a visual way for students to learn how to make music.
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Lloyd McCausland
Lloyd McCausland, former vice president of Remo, passed away on Jan. 28 from COVID-19. He was 89. McCausland worked with Remo Belli when the famed Hollywood drummer began creating his own line of synthetic drumheads in the late 1950s. He became a fixture at the company and was known to dealers and musicians alike. As vice president, McCausland played a large role in the marketing of the product line as well as improving the manufacturing process. He served as a mentor to many in our industry and loved to talk about music, and in particular, jazz.
The FL Otto Link Vintage Sound. Quick Response. Powerful. This limited production tenor sax model lets you reproduce the dark, powerful sound of a vintage Link, while delivering quick top-tobottom response and a warm, rich sound, with just the right amount of edge.
Robert ‘Dan’ Palen
Robert “Dan” Palen of Palen Music Center in Springfield, Miss., passed away on Jan. 17 after suffering from a stroke. He was just 52 years old. He was born to Dan and Sue Palen on February 26, 1968 in Springfield. He graduated from Glendale High School in 1986 and went on to receive his associate’s degree in music synthesis from Berklee College of Music in Boston. He was co-owner and managing director at Palen Music Center. Palen is survived by his wife of 31 years, Lisa, his three children, Jessica, Peyton and Barrett, his mother Sue, his two brothers, Brett and Brad, and his granddaughter Juniper.
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The Great Outdoors
Yorkville Sound announced the CO8CW and C12CW weather-resistant full-range speakers. These IP56rated outdoor speakers are the latest additions to the Coliseum line of installation products. The C08CW and C12CW are eight-inch and 12-inch two-way speakers designed with compact coaxial drivers. Both have the ability to operate at 70 volts, 100 volts or eight ohms. yorkville.com
A Smart Move
K&M’s latest holders each adapt to fit both smartphones and tablets with a clamping range from 5.1 inches to 8.8 inches. Infinitely variable positioning is afforded with the ball-shaped mechanism as well as a 360-degree rotating arm. The brackets and mounting surface are coated with non-slip rubber for added stability, as well as a gentle grip, stated the company. The 19800 table stand model also holds an Allen wrench in the base and features a convenient cable opening. The 19805 table clamp model fits depths of 0.39 inches to 1.37 inches, and its clamp surfaces are coated with rubber to protect the table. All K&M products come with a five-year warranty and 10-year parts replacement. connollymusic.com
Justin Time
Justin Sandercoe, better known as simply JustinGuitar, is one of the most trusted and successful online guitar instructors in the history of the internet. Hal Leonard has been working with Sandercoe to publish print versions of his instructional methods and now released the “JustinGuitar Easy Guitar Songbook,” featuring 101 popular songs that can be played with up to eight open chords. Songs are presented in sequential difficulty order in chord/lyric format with lesson tips, chord diagrams and more. The collection includes top hits, including “Eleanor Rigby” (The Beatles), “Free Fallin’” (Tom Petty), “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)” (Green Day), “Perfect” (Ed Sheeran), “Shallow” (Lady Gaga), “Zombie” (The Cranberries) and dozens more. halleonard.com
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Pioneering Product
Gator released its custom foam-cut waterproof case for the Pioneer DJ CDJ-2000NXS2 professional DJ multi-player. With features like the patented easy-release Powerclaw latching system and impact-proof, lightweight NK-7 Resin, the case provides 360-degree protection. Built to ATA-300 certifications, the shell contains military-grade craftsmanship, making it the prime solution for the gigging DJ by protecting against the elements, stated the company. The gear inside is even further guarded with patented Powerclaw latches engineered specifically to keep the case closed during transport or in the event of a drop. Custom-cut foam inserts ensure a snug fit to help secure the CDJ-2000NXS2 when being moved around. A soft-grip carry handle promotes comfortable transport, added the manufacturer. gatorcases.com
Trace Elliot introduced Trace ELF Combos. The ELF 1x8 Combo measures 12 inches by 10.2 inches by 13.3 inches and weighs 17 pounds, while the slightly stockier ELF 1x10 Combo measures 13.3 inches by 12 inches by 14 inches and weighs just 18 pounds. Both units are built to amplify the player’s skill and the tone of their instrument, while being expandable and flexible to meet the needs of the setting. ELF Combos feature a built-in Trace Elliot ELF ultracompact bass amplifier, which weighs just 1.6 pounds and is able to fit inside a back pocket. Ultra-high preamp input impedance at more than 10 megaohms provides maximum sensitivity when using passive pickups, while the post-EQ balanced XLR DI output with ground lift sends classic Trace Elliot tone to a mixing console or recording device, stated the company. A 1/4-inch headphone output allows for quiet practice. traceelliott.com
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high/low pass filters on each deck along with dedicated loop controls. Each deck is switchable between two USB laptop connections as well as a line input that’s switchable to phono for traditional turntables. rane.com
Rane announced its professional motorized DJ controller, the ONE. It offers motorized seveninch turntable platters for a traditional vinyl feeling, complete with a customizable high/low torque setting. RANE ONE’s multi-function, independent performance pads provide access to Hot Cues, Saved Loops, Roll, Sampler, Slicer and Serato’s Scratch Bank feature. With six radio-style FX buttons, users can instantly activate any combination of software FX with a single press, fine-tune with depth and beat parameter controls, then activate with the independent aluminum paddle controls, stated the manufacturer. Finally, take full control of your sound with the three-band dynamic EQs and
What Can Browne Do for You?
Browne Amplification released the T4 Fuzz pedal. The T4 is the Browne Amplification take on the classic four-transistor fuzz, similar to the circuits used in the Big Muff and countless other variants. What sets the T4 apart is a flattened EQ curve that allows the mids to come back in and cut through the mix better, stated the company. It also has been softened in the gain department. The T4 is equipped with three control knobs that provide level, sustain and tone for the pedal. It supports a standard nine-volt DC negative power input. browneamps.com
MUSIC & SOUND RETAILER
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Be Heard with Confidence Digital Wireless USB Microphones
The easiest way to improve the audio quality for virtual meetings or virtual learning is to upgrade to an external microphone.
VocoPro’s USB-CAST connects directly to the computer’s USB drive via a USB receiver. No cables, no complicated set up, a true plug-and-play on PC and Mac.
Now you won’t be asked to talk louder or get closer to the laptop to be heard with USB-CAST. FEATURES: • Transmitters sync to the USB receiver automatically, with quick tap-to-sync functionality to avoid interference • Two users can use the microphones simultaneously without interference or set up • Operates in 900 MHz away from radio, TV, and Wi-Fi interference
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Wish You Were Here
C.F. Martin introduced two David Gilmour Custom Signature Edition D-35 guitars. The six- and 12-string models are both finished in vintage gloss, a process normally available only on the Martin Authentic Series models. It delivers a soft sheen patina somewhere between full gloss and satin. Gilmour chose Adirondack spruce for the top of the six-string model, as found on an early ’40s vintage D-18 that he also owns. Adirondack is a little stiffer than its more commonly used Sitka spruce cousin and offers more complex overtones. The top is torrefied using the Martin Vintage Tone System (VTS), a process that “ages” the wood, adding vintage sound characteristics without waiting years for it to happen naturally. The top braces on the six-string are 1/4-inch Adirondack spruce for added support and resonance, and they are scalloped and forward-shifted. The top of the 12-string is Carpathian spruce, grown in the mountains of Romania. martinguitar.com
Taking Extreme Measures
D&A Guitar Gear introduced the BULLHEAD EXTREME Multi-Accessory Support System product line, featuring five products, all sold separately, that will allow the end user to convert and customize their BULLHEAD or BULLHEAD + Folding Music Stand into a full-blown live performance system stand that can accommodate a microphone boom arm, a tablet holder, a livestream/video camera, personal lighting and Dean’s new microphone cable-management clips. The BULLHEAD EXTREME Multi-Accessory Support System line consists of five new Accessories: the Tablet and Smartphone Holder, Microphone Boom Arm, Single Adapter, Trio-Plate with Three Adapters and Microphone Cable Clips. dnaguitargear.com
Prophecy Revealed
Epiphone unveiled the Prophecy Collection. Featuring a modern take on classic Gibson blueprints including the Les Paul, Flying V, SG and Extura, its standard specs allow players to set new benchmarks in speed, sound and technique. Across the Prophecy Collection, each Les Paul, Flying V, SG and Extura features standard specs, including custom-voiced active Fishman Fluence pickups that deliver three distinct tones: a warm vintage humbucker, a hot modern humbucker, and a shimmering optimized single-coil, all accessed by push/pull volume and tone pots. Additionally, attention-grabbing color finishes with specially designed inlays, 24 frets for reaching new octaves, fast-playing necks and high-end appointments round out every guitar. epiphone.com
A New Dimension
Spector Musical Instruments announces the release of its latest two series, the NS Dimension and NS Ethos. Expanding on Spector’s influential design legacy, these instruments feature compelling features like multiscale design, exotic wood tops and premium electronics. Spector’s NS Dimension Series combines iconic design with multi-scale construction, bringing a new level of playability and tonality to Spector’s dedicated legion of players, stated the manufacturer. In addition to the multi-scale, neck-thru construction, the NS Dimension features a variety of premium tone woods and Fishman Fluence electronics. The NS Ethos Series offers players a fresh take on this Spector’s now classic design with updated finishes and electronics from Aguilar. spectorbass.com
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FEBRUARY 2021
PRODUCT
Top 10
Silver Sky in Polar Blue
Fiore in Sugar Moon
Celestion introduced the Neo V -Type guitar speaker. Featuring a unique neodymium magnet assembly, the Neo V-Type delivers the familiar and modern vintage sound of the company’s wellestablished V-Type speaker, but with a weight reduction of almost 50 percent. The Neo V-Type has been designed to be a costeffective, lightweight neodymium magnet guitar speaker option both for manufacturers and for after-market upgrades, with no compromise on tone. This speaker has a superbly balanced sonic signature that imparts a vintage musicality to an end users’ tone, stated the company. Clean sounds have just the right amount of upper-mid chime and HF sparkle to add clarity and definition. Crank it up for a sizzling overdrive and some raw rhythmic grind, but expect a little extra definition and note separation for searing, singlenote lead lines thanks to some neodymium “magnet magic,” the manufacturer added. celestion.com
TOOLS FOR SERIOUS PLAYERS
Special Semi-Hollow in McCarty Burst
V for V-Type
to ensure pristine recordings that are free from clipping or distortion. There is always a secondary track for worry-free “no second take” recording. Equally notable, level meters are now active during both recording and playback. tascam.com
Studio in Eriza Verde
TASCAM announced the DR-10L Micro Linear PCM Recorder. The DR-10L’s OLED-backlit display provides clear, real-time information about record levels, SD card status and more — without the annoying distraction of bright LEDs that can be seen through clothing, stated the company. In addition to its support for 48kHz/24-bit BWF (Broadcast Wave Format) and WAV format recording, the DR-10L also offers MP3 recording at both 128kbps and 192kbps. Also included is the DR-10L’s poly-file dual-record capability with adjustable dB level that automatically makes a backup track to the SD card. Users can, for example, set the dB level of the backup track to -6dB or-12dB
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With PRS designed and built pickups, these guitars pack some serious tone. Made to be clear, distinctive, and inspiring, our pickups give you the tools you need to stand out and be heard. Visit you’re local PRS dealer to check them out and find your sound.
PRODUCT
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Game, Set, Match
PIRASTRO introduced the PERPETUAL Viola String Set, which provide the “largest sound volume and carrying power, combined with a precisely focused sound projection,” stated the company. The strings also offer vibrant tone attack and optimal string response to complement PERPETUAL’s sound qualities from fortissimo to the most sensitive whisper. The strings react in an ideal way to the finest nuances in bow speed and pressure, enabling the musician to play with an extreme range of dynamics and expression, the company added. pirastro.com
Exuding Class
ddrum entered the headphone arena with the Studio Class Isolation Headphones. Inspired by drummers but designed for all musicians, these headphones fit comfortably around the ears to provide 36 decibels of passive sound isolation. While the headphones help reduce external volumes of other instruments, their internal speakers can deliver a well-balanced mix. Suitable for various genres and styles, ddrum Studio Class Isolation Headphones are a professional-grade solution every musician should have in their gig bag. They offer high-precision audio through 40-millimeter closed back speakers that extend frequency response of 20 to 20,000 hertz with 32-ohm impedance, providing excellent definition from bass to treble, stated the manufacturer. Further proving their capability, the headphone speakers deliver 114 decibels at one-kilohertz one-megawatt sensitivity when maxed out. They can also be hooked up to high-output rigs, with a 1,000-megawatt input power rating. The detachable eight-foot cable extension affords players freedom where needed, whether in the studio or on stage. ddrum.com
Numero Uno
IK Multimedia announced UNO Synth Pro and UNO Synth Pro Desktop. Developed in collaboration with Italian boutique synth-maker Soundmachines, both these new analog synthesizers take the groundbreaking UNO Synth monophonic synth and expand it in nearly every section: more oscillators, more filters, more sequencer memory, more effects, more presets, more connections and more programmability. UNO Synth Pro puts this new sound engine in a rugged metal chassis with a 37-key synth-action Fatar keybed, while UNO Synth Pro Desktop provides a more portable form factor to travel anywhere. The UNO Synth Pro’s unique dual-filter, three-oscillator paraphonic design lets it create nearly any synth sound imaginable, and with 256 presets, a new 64-step sequencer and expanded CV/Gate and audio connections. unosynthpro.com
Protect and Serve
The Music People, a division of Jam Industries USA LLC, debuted its Hybrid Series of guitar bags. These bags feature the protection of a hardshell guitar case and couple it with the lightweight feel of a gig bag. Along with a weather-resistant exterior that defends against the elements, the bags boast a rigid inner shell and thick, 22mm padding that shields the instrument from impact damage and keeps its finish looking fresh. Upper and lower pockets allow for plenty of storage for accessories. Backpack-style straps and a cushioned top handle allow for balanced and comfortable lifting and carrying. A twopull zipper opens and closes fully at either end or any point in between for easy loading and unloading. The Hybrid guitar bags feature a 600D nylon exterior, two accessory pockets and come in Charcoal Gray. musicpeopleinc.com
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FEBRUARY 2021
PRODUCT
Let’s Get It Started
Audient released its next generation (mark II) of two iD audio Interfaces, iD4 (MKII) and iD14 (MKII), along with the new EVO Start Recording Bundle. Audient has taken this opportunity to make significant upgrades to the audio performance and feature sets of both iD4 and iD14, making sure they are now comparable with its most powerful interface, the iD44. Both iD4 (MKII) and iD14 (MKII) now provide 120 decibels of dynamic range on the DAC’s and ADC’s, representing a huge step up in audio performance and ensuring users experience professional audio performance, stated the manufacturer. iD14 (MKII) is now completely bus powered via USB3.0 and benefits from the addition of dual headphones outputs, two extra line outputs and a USB-C connection, making collaboration, connectivity and portability easier, the company added. audient.com
On-Camera Talent
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CHAUVET DJ introduced the Cast Panel Pack, a complete lighting solution for vlogging or any other on-camera project. Cast Panels feature built-in color temperature presets that make adjustments painless, stated the company. Separate control of warm and cool LEDs allows fine tuning to any color temperature. An included removable filter widens and softens light output. Because the Cast Panels are battery-operated, they can be set up anywhere with optional battery packs (sold separately). Cast Panel Pack comes with two light fixtures (with barn doors), two tripods, two carry bags and two external power supplies. chauvetlighting.com
Un-- Believe Un By Anthony Vargas and Brian Berk
Gone were the in-person meetups, the glitz and glamour of parties and the excitement of live musical performances. These were all sorely missed from what an in-person NAMM Show provides. “Anyone who thinks The NAMM Show will not be back is sorely mistaken,” NAMM president and CEO Joe Lamond said to the audience, as well as his NAMM TV co-host, “Pensado’s Place’s” Herb Trawick, on Jan. 22 during Believe in Music Week. “If there is a world where we don’t have a physical show, I don’t want to be part of it.” Most manufacturers and retailers alike that The Music & Sound Retailer spoke to agreed with this sentiment. However, many said NAMM did everything it could to make Believe in Music Week, which took place Jan. 18 to 21 and drew 93,226 registered guests, a great event. Many manufacturers told the Retailer that the goal of the virtual show was not specifically to write tons of MI retailer purchase orders. Instead, it was to support NAMM and the industry. Lamond also mentioned the positives that a virtual show can bring and has suggested the likelihood that future NAMM Shows will be in-person, but complemented by a virtual component. 18
Although nothing can replace an in-person show, NAMM’s Believe in Music Week was the best a virtual event gets
FEBRUARY 2021
- able
“We are 10 months into a global pandemic that has seen the entire world [turned] upside down. This is the first [non inperson] NAMM Show in nearly 80 years,” he said. “We have more than 180 countries registered for Believe in Music Week.” Although Believe in Music Week kicked off on Jan. 18, it really hit its stride on Jan. 21. That’s when, just one day after his electrifying performance of “Amazing Grace” during President Joe Biden’s inauguration, country music star Garth Brooks was honored with NAMM’s Music For Life award. Lamond, stationed at a San Diego studio, asked Brooks what he was thinking about when he took the stage in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 20. “Keep your gut sucked in,” responded Brooks, who added he would have taken his whole family to the event if he had known how special the inauguration would be. “I got to hug four presidents in 15 seconds,” said Brooks. Lamond shifted the focus to Brooks’ band and crew, and what makes them so special. “They are my family,” stated Brooks. “Nothing is below them. Nobody has a bigger heart or works harder than [drummer] Mike Palmer.” Brooks added that Palmer, who has played with the country music legend since 1989, is also a great entertainer with his 360-degree drum kit, as is the rest of his band. Post-pandemic periods often bring on periods of music renaissance, Lamond noted in a shift of topics. He expects this to be the case again when the world gets to a post-COVID-19 era. Brooks agreed. “There will be a gratefulness you never knew was there,” relayed Brooks. “There will be a passion like you have never seen from the artist, crew and audience.” Grammy and Academy award winner Melissa Etheridge received NAMM’s second 2021 Music for Life award on Jan 22. Upon acceptance of the award, Etheridge discussed a number of topics. “When the pandemic started, I decided I wanted to do a free concert every day until it ended, thinking it would not last that long,” Etheridge said. “That stopped in May when my son passed away.” Etheridge, along with wife Linda Wallem, a producer and writer for TV shows such as “Nurse Jackie” and “That ‘70s Show,” decided to create Etheridge TV, a paid subscription service. “Five days a week, we bring music to my fans,” said Etheridge. “We make music
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three days a week, have chats one day and on Friday, we show old bootlegs of past concerts.” Etheridge has even performed live concerts with 20 to 40 people watching from a separate location. This model has proven effective enough that Etheridge is looking into livestreaming her concerts post-pandemic in an effort to reach fans in countries in which she has never toured. However, Etheridge acknowledged livestreaming technology needs a lot of improvements. “We cannot replicate the experience of everyone together,” she said. “A lot needs to be done to make streaming better.” The Grammy winner was also asked about her childhood growing up in Leavenworth, Kans., and her musical influences there. She recalled getting her first guitar at 8 years old and visiting
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both Urban Music Store and Tune Shop. “My first live concert was Buck Owens,” relayed Etheridge. “He was amazing.” Lastly, Etheridge was asked about her widely acclaimed version of Janis Joplin’s “Piece of My Heart” that she performed with Joss Stone at the 2005 Grammy awards. Etheridge recalled receiving a chemotherapy treatment for cancer the morning of the performance and the warm reception she received from fellow musicians. “That is one of my top performances I ever did,” she said. “We [musicians] have a gift. The gift needs to be given,” Etheridge added. “I am blessed to share it.” Etheridge concluded the interview with a version of her hit song “Come to My Window.”
FEBRUARY 2021
Bob Phibbs
REMEMBER THESE TITANS
Garth Brooks
MUSIC & SOUND RETAILER
Lloyd Baggs, CEO of L.R. Baggs, does not sugarcoat how bad 2020 could have been. “I thought we would be in a soup kitchen,” he said during “Titans of the Industry Part I: 2021 Outlook and Beyond,” which was presented on Jan. 21, with interviews by Kate Richardson of the Richlynn Group. “But it is mind blowing how well the guitar industry seems to be doing. People are out there buying guitars like crazy.” Baggs added that he is “Blessed beyond logic for this to be happening. We did have to downsize. But with fewer staff and a lot of safety precautions in place, we have been able to stay open. I am amazed at the resourcefulness and creativity of our suppliers and partners.” Baggs was also asked to provide advice for those getting started in the MI industry today. He cautioned that money cannot be your primary goal, although you can earn a living. “I remember seeing an interview with Bill Gates. Even being the richest man in the world, the one thing he always remembered was being frightened all the time,” he stated. “Music has to be your oxygen. I love owning a business, but it is not for the faint of heart.” Baggs added his philosophy when it comes to business and life: “Give more than you get.” Jerry Goldenson, president and CEO of KHS America, was the second subject interviewed during this NAMM session. He noted that KHS has nearly 20 brands, and it is focused on what it calls a “stimulus package” for retailers. Although Goldenson did not go as far as Baggs did when talking about how bad business could have been last year, he did relay that 2020, of course, 2121
brought many challenges. “But it also presents opportunities,” he said. “Times of crisis often bring us together.” KHS’ CEO was also asked about advice to MI newcomers. “You have to understand your ‘why,’ and you have to understand [the job] is a huge part of your life. Talk to people both in and out of the MI industry.” Goldenson concluded with his business philosophy: “You have to be true to yourself,” he said. “You need to know you are making a difference.” In “Titans of the Industry, Part II: 2021 Outlook and Beyond,” Taylor Guitars CEO Bob Taylor and C.F. Martin CEO Chris Martin IV joined Richardson to offer their perspectives on the future of the MI industry and the guitar market in particular. The session also took place on Jan. 21. Richardson started by asking both CEOs what products they were most excited about releasing in 2021. Martin responded that he is most looking forward to trying to “re-engage with the ukulele community,” which he estimated is a $150 million global market. According to Martin, his company only currently has a one-percent share of the global ukulele market, and he joked that his team hopes to double that number. Taylor responded that his company released its American Dream and Grand Theater lines this year to “really try and help out our dealers.” However, he said that his main priority for 2021 is meeting the surging demand for his company’s existing products. “We’re always excited about what we’re putting out new, but at the exact same time, we have so many orders that we don’t know how to make them. So […] in 2021, we’re going to try and introduce stable production. And that right there is going to help dealers.” Martin agreed, adding “We aggravate the situation by making more new products on top of the products that we can’t make enough of right now.” Both Martin and Taylor attributed the current high demand for their company’s products to an ongoing “guitar boom” the likes of which they have only seen three or four times before in their 40-plus-year careers. The two then shared some perspective on how the guitar market and the art of guitar making have evolved in that time, attributing that growth to the camaraderie of the MI industry and the contributions of many great guitar makers over the years. Both agreed that cooperation between competitors is healthy for the industry as a whole. Richardson then asked what the biggest challenge each company had to overcome this year had been, especially with the COVID-19 pandemic still looming large. Taylor pointed to supply chain issues, although he added that when it comes to guitar 22
manufacturing, “There’s not that much we have to buy, and everything else we make out of wood. So, I would say we’re better off than a company that is subcontractor- and hardware-dependent, because we actually make the guitar.” Taylor also said that the pandemic’s effects on international trade haven’t been as severe as they could have Five Star Guitars been because guitar-makers are used to stockpiling raw materials.
Both C.F. Mar tin’s Chris Mar tin and Taylor Guitars’ Bob Taylor attribute the current high demand for their company’s products to an ongoing “guitar boom” the likes of which they have only seen three or four times before in their 40-plus-year careers.
“Traditionally, a guitarmaker always measured their wealth by the amount of wood they had on the shelf in the shop when they died,” Taylor said. Richardson then asked Martin and Taylor to offer their predictions for the future and how the current boom in guitar sales will affect the market Melissa Etheridge going forward. Taylor responded that “We think that the market will certainly ratchet up, but in some cases I’ll admit that we could be selling tomorrow’s lunch today. Guitars are going crazy, and we’re delighted about that, but pro audio is not. So, it could happen that, 18 months from now, people go ‘I need a PA system and some amplifiers and microphones to use those guitars I bought in 2020 and ’21,’ and there could be a trimming back.” However, he added that he has never seen a boom as large as this one in the guitar market before, and that “I think we could hold onto a 20-percent increase in what was there before [the pandemic].” FEBRUARY 2021
“A lot of people that never got closer to a guitar than dreaming about it now have one, and they’re trying to make it work,” Martin said. “Some of those people will stick with it. So those are new customers.” He added, “And it’s easier to learn today, particularly because you’re going to have to learn digitally, virtually anyway. You’re doing it over the internet, and there’s plenty of opportunity out there.” Both Martin and Taylor were extremely optimistic that the current health of the guitar market will bode well for future sales. “We look at our sales stats every week, and we [say] ‘It’s another world record!’” Taylor said. “We wrote orders for more guitars than Martin and Taylor wrote in a year in 1980, and we’ve done that in three days, or four days.” Martin added that “We’re bigger than we’ve ever been, and [Taylor] is as big as us, so the market is bigger than it’s ever been!”
Vintage Tone Modern Technology Lightweight Neodymium Magnet MUSIC & SOUND RETAILER
N12K
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THE RETAIL DOCTOR IS IN In order for MI retailers to continue to grow their businesses, they must do three things: 1) court the new “leisure class,” 2) serve to sell and 3) make it personal, not transactional, stated Bob Phibbs, founder, The Retail Doctor. Phibbs offered these insights on Jan. 21 during his Believe in Music Week educational session, titled “Music Retail: The Game Has Changed — It’s Better.” Regarding the leisure class, Phibbs defined this group as consumers who have much more free time due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “The average commuter got back two hours a day, which equals three months a year. This leads to a new leisure class,” said Phibbs. As for “serving to sell,” Phibbs noted: “You’re not selling a widget. You’re selling a promise to find confidence, and money is part of that transaction. Service is very important.” Making an MI sale personal, not transactional, can be more difficult than before due to online sales now being a crucial source of revenue for retailers. “Shoppers are more likely to become loyal buyers not from their use of technology, but from human interactions,” stressed Phibbs. Music has been a big beneficiary of the leisure trend, leading to increased guitar sales during the pandemic. Retailers are motivated more than ever to be successful. But Phibbs cautioned that they must know where to aim and what the target is. “We have lost sight of our real goal,” he said. “It is the ultimate ‘why.’ It has to be worth the struggle.” The Retail Doctor offered the example that nobody in their right mind would enter a burning building to retrieve a $20 bill, but they would risk life and limb if a child or loved one were stuck in that same burning building. “Go deep and come up with your ‘why,” stressed Phibbs. “It should not be ‘I want to increase sales.’ A much better ‘why’ is you want to set up your kids for a successful future without a mountain of debt.” He added, “Write down your ‘why’ and put it where you can see it. The deeper you get into your ‘why,’ the more successful you become.”
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Once your “why” is established, Phibbs advised doing two other things. The first is to write down three things you wish could have gone better at your business in the past year, putting these in a bucket, (physically or metaphorically) and lighting them on fire (safely of course). “You need to empty the garbage and negativity,” he said. The next step is the opposite: Ask yourself what you did well in your business in the past year, and then make a goal for this year. “The goal should be, ‘This year, I want to …’ It can be about business or your personal life. Then, you need to write down the three things that are needed to achieve that goal,” Phibbs relayed. “Do you need to hire more people? Do you need to stop looking at your smartphone?” Once this goal is determined, think about something you did that day to advance the goal, Phibbs advised. “When you wake up and get out of bed, think of one thing you will do that day to move toward your goal.” “Yes, the world has changed,” concluded Phibbs. “Now is our time. In hope, we are fearless.”
FEBRUARY 2021
SIMPLY THE BEST Also on Jan. 21, the MI industry virtually gathered to celebrate the spirit of the independent music retailer via the Top100 Dealer Awards. Announced were the following winners: Five Star Guitars — Dealer of the Year Santa Monica Music Center — Best Community Retail Store Amro Music Stores, Inc. — Best Customer Ser vice Heid Music Company, Inc. — Best Marketing and Sales Promotion Andertons Music Co. — Best Online Engagement and Customers Choice Award Drum Center of Portsmouth — Best Store Design Royalton Music Center — Innovation Award The Candyman Strings & Things — Music Makes a Difference Award Stated Lamond, “As we’ve experienced, it was an unprecedented year for businesses across the world, but these stories of hope, resilience and service to others to continue to advance musicmaking are truly inspiring. Our members are the heart of our industry, and as we heard today — even in the face of a pandemic — continued to bring people joy through music.” One such story comes from The Candyman Strings & Things, winner of the Music Makes a Difference award. The company detailed the power of music for a one student named Arnold who suffers from a developmental disability. Arnold began taking weekly drum lessons at The Candyman approximately four years ago and has continued taking lessons ever since. On his lesson day, he walks into the store and brings the brightest light with him. Arnold's teacher, Andy, said, “Arnold always stays focused and always gives his drumming his best. His positive attitude is an example for everyone.” Vanessa, his case manager, echoed his role as a leader: “When I heard that The Candyman was nominating Arnold for the Music Makes a Difference Award, I couldn’t help but think that not only has music made a difference in Arnold’s life, but through his example, he is now paving the way to make a difference in the lives of other special-
MUSIC & SOUND RETAILER
needs individuals.” In their livestreamed acceptance, Cindy and Rand Cook, owners of The Candyman, shared their secret. “It’s our staff; it’s because of them. It’s a team that’s also a part of our family. They are warm and welcoming to Arnold and to all individuals. If you spend some time with someone who is struggling with a disability, you’ll find amazing heart inside, and that enriches our heart and our experience. So, we dedicate this award to all of our staff, and to Arnold.” Beaverton, Ore.-based Five Star Guitars, 2020’s Dealer of the Year, also changed lives through music, which was a theme across its entries. The company spotlighted one special young student, Brady, who found his voice and a way to communicate with the world. As the COVID-19 pandemic spread, the world around Brady was forced to observe social distancing and quarantines. All gatherings larger than 25 people had been banned by government decree. Brady found a way to bring his neighborhood back together ... through music. On March 17th, 2020, as every music venue in Oregon was silent, Brady performed on the front steps of his house to entertain his neighbors. The response was overwhelming and resulted in a local news station documenting the performance. Geoff Metts, owner of Five Star Guitars, accepted the award and relayed, “We’re truly honored. It’s thrilling. It’s been a year that’s been so full of turmoil … I’m just at a loss for words. I would like to thank [our] staff and everyone who has supported our business. This award means a great deal to all of us.” Editor’s Note: For much more from Believe in Music Week, check out the upcoming March issue of the Music & Sound Retailer. 25
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‘21
We follow up January’s Product Showcase with 21 more products to stock at your stores.
Another
Products for
By Brian Berk Last month, we presented 21 products being featured in 2021. This month, we added 21 more items, for a total of 42 products presented in showcase form during the past two months. Let’s look at this month’s entrants.
Taking It to the Streets C.F. Martin introduced two new models: the T1 StreetMaster Ukulele as part of its 15 Series and the 100-percent Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified Concert Ukulele FSC. The T1 StreetMaster Ukulele features an ultra-thin finish that creates a weathered appearance that feels as if it’s an old friend you’ve been playing for years, stated the company. The top, back and sides are all mahogany, making it lightweight with a bright tone. End users who play guitar and want to learn the uke will find this size makes for a comfortable transition, and it’s great for both a child and full-grown adult, the company added. The Concert Ukulele FSC is built for serious players who want premium tone in an environmentally friendly instrument. This concert-sized ukulele features top, back and sides made from 100-percent FSC-certified mahogany. It’s constructed with an applied dovetail mahogany neck for extra stability, sports Ratio tuners, and its satin finish adds the perfect amount of shine. martinguitar.com
Ooh, Barracuda Epiphone debuted the Nancy Wilson Fanatic signature model designed by Heart co-founder and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Nancy Wilson. Featuring a mahogany body with a figured maple veneer top, the Nighthawk body shape was first introduced in 1993 and is compact and comfortable, stated the company. The Epiphone Nancy Wilson Fanatic comes equipped with ProBucker humbuckers, a five-way pickup selector switch for a wide variety of tonal options, master volume and tone controls, a fast-playing rounded C profile mahogany neck with an ebony fretboard and features a Fireburst Gloss finish. Includes a hardshell case. epiphone.com
A ‘Boom’ to Sales Gator released its professional desktop broadcast/podcast microphone boom stand. The mic boom (GFWMICBCBM4000) is the step up from the GFWMICBCBM3000, with features like an on-air indicator light, 360-degree rotation ability and a replaceable XLR cable. It is designed to be the ultimate go-to for the professional podcaster and/or streamer, stated the company. The GFWMICBCBM4000 adds an LED light ring to inform the operator of a live mic, along with the inclusion of a fully removable 10-foot XLR cable and dedicated cable management channel. Three different color modes (red, blue or violet) are available to choose from, and one can easily control the brightness with the LED controller. The stand is fully adjustable for desired mic placement and will clamp or directly mount to surfaces up to 2.17 inches in thickness, including the ability to rotate a full 360-degrees. gatorcases.com
Batteries Included Yorkville Sound’s EXM Mobile Sub is the first ever battery-powered, portable, bass reflex subwoofer with Bluetooth technology, stated the company. Equipped with two eight-inch woofers, it delivers excellent bass for musicians and mobile DJs utilizing wireless gigs anywhere without comprising the low end, the manufacturer added. Weighing in at 30 pounds, it is compatible with all products in the EXM Mobile series including the EXM Mobile, EXM Mobile 12 and the newly announced EXM Mobile 8. yorkvile.com
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FEBRUARY 2021
Dynamic Solo TASCAM debuted the TM-82 Dynamic Microphone. Featuring a unidirectional cardioid design specifically engineered for stunning voice and instrument capture, it is designed for both recording and live performance applications. Designed as a vocal/instrument microphone for the working performer’s budget, it is an all-around microphone for natural, accurate vocal and instrument audio. With its unidirectional cardioid polar pattern and a frequency response of 50Hz~20kHz, the new TM-82 is specifically engineered to capture the character and nuances of performances without introducing room sound into the mix. With its unidirectional cardioid polar pattern that is resistant to ambient noise, the TM-82 captures exactly what it is given, highlighting the performance, stated the company. The TASCAM TM-82 ships with a mic holder that is compatible with all standard microphone stands. tascam.com
Flower Power Mark Lettieri officially joined the PRS Guitars artist family with his new signature bolt-on guitar, the Fiore. This guitar features a new body shape, 25.5-inch scale length, and a versatile pickup and electronics arrangement designed to be a free space for players to explore and find their unique musical voice, stated PRS. Fiore, Italian for flower, features several personal design touches from Lettieri, including the color choices and names, as well as truss rod cover design drawn by Lettieri’s mother. prsguitars.com
Dragonheart Luna Guitars introduced the Henna Dragon Ukulele Series. Available in three body sizes with varying tonal depths, Henna Dragon Ukuleles have a laser-etched henna dragon design and a slotted headstock that’s reminiscent of a classical nylon-stringed guitar. Luna includes a builtin preamp to convey the warm tones of the all-mahogany body. Another feature is the slotted headstock which, on a small-body instrument, improves the articulation of the Aquila Super Nylgut strings. The headstock is topped off with a Satin Natural finish and Luna’s insignia. Henna Dragon Ukuleles also have a set-neck construction that further enhances the transfer of vibrational energy between the body and mahogany neck. Luna’s pearloid moon inlays add a signature touch to the 19-fret pau ferro fingerboard. The 1 3/8-inch nut width, combined with a traditional C-shaped neck, provides a comfortable playing experience, stated the company. lunaguitars.com
On the GO The VOX MINI GO series of guitar amps is suited for use anywhere a musician might play, from home to the street, or even in a concert venue. Each amp in the series features realistic and responsive amp models based on the “VET” modeling technology used on the VOX Cambridge50 amp (including a newly developed vocoder for talking modulation effects), a rhythm machine that can play back patterns from 11 genres, onboard effects for a diverse range of sounds and tone, a mic input, AUX input and a headphone jack, all as standard features. It can be powered by the included AC adapter or, for portability, by any USB mobile battery with a current output of 1.5 A or greater. The most compact amp in the series, the VOX MINI GO 3, features a five-inch three-watt speaker. The VOX MINI GO 10 features a 6.5-inch 10-watt speaker with adjustable amp output wattage. The largest and loudest amp in the series, the VOX MINI GO 50, features an eight-inch 50-watt speaker with adjustable amp output wattage. voxamps.com
Mega-Volt The Ernie Ball Volt offers multiple isolated, high-current DC power outputs. It supplies clean, regulated power to almost any digital or analog effects pedals. The compact and rugged housing can fit almost anywhere on even the densest pedalboard. If end users need low noise and reliable power for any gig, it features regulated nine- and 18-volt DC outputs. It also offers LED indicators for each input/output. It is short circuit and thermally protected. Includes a universal AC adapter with four interchangeable plugs for US, UK, EU and China, plus five DC Power cables (500mm long). ernieball.com
(continued on page 42) MUSIC & SOUND RETAILER
27
FI V E M INUTE S W ITH
DAN ROBERTS, President and General Manager, Manhasset Specialty Co. By Brian Berk
The COVID-19 pandemic may not have been kind to companies and retailers that cater to the school music and band and orchestra markets. But Yakima, Wash.-based Manhasset Specialty Co. put its creative hat on and looked to a brighter future. Dan Roberts, president and general manager, explains why he is optimistic about the future of MI and much more.
The Music & Sound Retailer: Please tell us about your background and your time spent at Manhasset Specialty. Dan Roberts: The six years I have been with Manhasset Specialty have flown by. It has been a great experience for me to be part of a great company whose products are in demand all over the world because of their quality and timeless design. Manhasset Stands are now sold on six continents, and its export sales grow significantly every year. One of the reasons I have enjoyed working at Manhasset so much is the team of people; they have been great to work with. The experience of working in an employee-owned (ESOP) company has been very positive. Every employee is invested in helping to make great products and give great service to our customers, to ensure the future success of the company and the brand. I had the opportunity to get into the music business when I joined Musicorp many years ago. There, I had the privilege of working for one of the leading musical instrument and accessories distributors in the United States. That gave me a wonderful opportunity to meet thousands of MI retailers and hundreds of MI manufacturers, 28
which was phenomenal for me. It helped me become immersed in this great industry of ours. And after Musicorp, working with KMC Music, then as part of Fender, I learned so much more about the industry. Prior to my experience in working in the music industry, I worked for companies that manufactured products for the housewares, hardware, sporting goods and toy businesses, which was enjoyable. But, in my opinion, the people that make up the music industry are the best. And it is the people in the MI industry that I will always remember most fondly.
The Retailer: Please tell us about ever ything Manhasset Specialty sells as you enter your 86th anniversar y? Roberts: I will tell you one thing: we will never forget our 85th year of business! Who would have believed all of the challenges that we have struggled with in 2020? But Manhasset has survived and gotten stronger in many ways, which has prepared us for whatever may happen in 2021, the year in which we are celebrating our 86th anniversary. Looking at the products that we will sell in 2021, our core music stand products continue to sell well. In the last six years, we have invested in production processes and new equipment to help us make our stands the best they have ever been. We want to make sure that our distributors, dealers, band directors and end users are delighted with the products that they purchase from Manhasset. Our goal is to be problem-free for the end user and to have our products last for decades.
When you offer a lifetime warranty on a product, it had better be good. That has been Manhasset’s warranty program for the last nine years. We are proud to say that our products’ performance has exceeded the expectations of many end users, as the great testimonials that we receive from purchasers of Manhasset music stands attest to.
The Retailer: You mentioned Manhasset Specialty is an employee-owned business. Tell us more about what advantages this provides you. Roberts: Firstly, every employee knows that the products that we ship out must meet our expectations for quality. We strive to give our band directors and end users a great experience when they take Manhasset music stands and accessories out of the box. Secondly, we have a great team atmosphere at Manhasset, and every employee is crosstrained to give us flexibility in our production, quality control and shipping activities. Because our employees are all owners of the company, we can fully share information about the direction of the company, our commitment to continuous improvement in our manufacturing processes and our plans for future investment in capital expenditures. Everyone understands that the company needs to keep investing to make our products the best they can be, and we need to produce our music stands and accessories as efficiently as possible.
The entire Manhasset team has worked to bring productivity up to record levels to make sure that our products are competitive even with products that do not have all of the features and benefits that ours do. We are proud to produce our music stands and accessories in the USA and proud to have the best warranty in the business on our music stands.
The Retailer: Due to the pandemic, retailers saw school rental business drop. Symphonies and orchestras also could not play in person. How did you adjust as a company? Roberts: Short answer: as best we could. We shut down production for some weeks to make sure that our employees stayed home to avoid getting the virus, and that worked out well. We operated a skeleton crew, and we did all we could to take care of the needs of our customers during that time, shipping from products in our inventory. With MI retailers shut down for the most part during these weeks, demand was light. Fortunately, our export business came back sooner than U.S. demand, and we went back to work to take care of those customers’ needs. We also saw a growing demand for protective shields, and we concentrated on finding component parts to make our Acoustic Shields and Clear Desk stands for dualpurpose use as personal protective FEBRUARY 2021
little more, having been restricted for so many months.
equipment and as music stands. We also developed the new Clear Shield, which is designed primarily as a protective shield, but it can be used similarly to the Acoustic Shield, when we are able to put bands and orchestras back together in person. Demand for all three of these stands has been very high, and we have pushed to produce every possible piece so that we could support the needs of schools, orchestras and other businesses. Demand for all of our music stands has also been strong since we have come back to work. We have been making record numbers of music stands on a daily basis to meet the needs of worldwide demand.
The Retailer: How difficult were the times for the company during the height of the pandemic? Roberts: Manhasset is very strong financially. The company owns its property and has almost no long-term debt. There was no doubt that the company would survive, unlike many other companies, as we waited for business to come back. Our greatest concern was for our employees’ safety and especially for everyone associated with the MI business. With operations shut down for a time, that led to savings from utilities and raw materials usage, reducing cash MUSIC & SOUND RETAILER
going out. The company received a Payroll Protection Plan (PPP) loan, and we continued to pay all of our employees even when production was shut down. The PPP only covered a fraction of the cost of our payroll and fringes, but we felt it was the right thing to do. We did not want our people to be without health care coverage in the scary COVID-19 environment if they had been laid off. Since production has resumed, we are diligent about monitoring each employee’s health, with hand sanitizer and hand-washing stations located all around the plant. We also have provided face masks, face shields and gloves, and insisted on social distancing in the plant and offices. Thankfully, our people have stayed healthy and safe!
The Retailer: There is good news now about vaccines.
Are you optimistic that once the world returns to normal, you will see brisk business? Demand for symphonies and orchestras should certainly rise, for example. Roberts: The news about vaccines is great! I know that we all hope that we can beat this virus and get back to a more normal life soon. I do think that people will be a little more careful about being a part of crowds for a while, and we may see face masks still being used until new cases become much fewer in number. We know that Americans are tired of being cooped up working from their homes, and they are anxious to be able to go to movies, concerts, symphonies and theme parks. So, I do see brisk business ahead once vaccinations are widely available. I think we will all appreciate the little freedoms and entertainment opportunities a
The Retailer: What are you doing to get the word out about your products with the absence of an in-person NAMM show? Roberts: We are going to take advantage of every virtual interaction opportunity that we have. Manhasset participated in the NAMM Believe in Music Week so that we could communicate with anyone that would like updated information about our company and our products. And we will be involved in video calls with our distributors in the U.S. and around the world, talking about their business and the opportunities that we have together. We will miss the face-to-face meetings, handshakes and hugs, but we will do our best to assure everyone that Manhasset is committed to helping them grow our business together in 2021 and in future years. Our export sales representatives have really done a great job of keeping communications open with all of our export distributors around the world. The Retailer: Can you tell us about some new products you have recently launched or will soon launch, and the benefits of such products? Roberts: I mentioned the Clear Shield, which has become a very good seller. We have a few other new products that we are still finalizing that we think will be very well received. Details will be available soon. The Retailer: Looking on a macro scale, are you optimistic about the MI industr y in the future? Why or why not? Roberts: Yes, I am optimistic. The satisfaction of learning to play (continued on page 45) 29
M I SPY
JERSEY JAUNT, PART TWO:
More Musical Instrument Stores Welcome back to the Garden State, MI Spy fans! You might remember I visited New Jersey back in December. Well, the Chief took a look at my mission report and decided it was only the tip of the iceberg, and that I should return. Generally speaking, if someone is known as “The Chief,” it’s probably a good idea to listen to their orders. So I agreed. I was in a good mood as I got ready for another Jersey journey. I had just splurged on a new MI Spy Mobile … although my MI Spy paycheck didn’t contribute much to the purchase. (Even double agents need side gigs these days; some of us have even had to become triple or quadruple agents just to make ends meet.) So as I got behind the wheel and inhaled that new car smell, I got excited for the day. What could be more fun than taking a lengthy drive around New Jersey? Along the way, I got two trays of sushi for lunch, found a decent cup of coffee, and — oh yeah — checked out a few more musical instrument stores. Some brick-and-mortar shops are still only doing curbside delivery, but I found four New Jersey-based stores that are inviting shoppers to come inside (while wearing a mask and observing proper social distancing) to check out their wares and make purchases. Three of the stores had quite generous parking for the new MI Spy Mobile’s classy chassis, and the other had ample curbside public parking right in front of the entrance. I was able to drive right up and find a spot quickly, as if the stores were waiting for me and me only. (Or so I thought at first. Things are getting somewhat better for music stores, and I was not the only shopper at each location.) One thing is for sure: The outlook for music retail is
30
looking a lot brighter than it did at the start of the pandemic. It seems like the world has gotten back in touch with its love of making music while we were all in lockdown, and that’s one thing to feel optimistic about. Many more people are entertaining themselves at home with musical instruments. Kids (and adults) have been taking music lessons online, but some are returning to in-person lessons (with protections in place that would have been unthinkable in the past). More than in recent memor y, people who have extra time on their hands are learning (or relearning) musical instruments. And good news for MI retailers: All this means that more people are purchasing new and used instruments, as well as accessories and sheet music. Of course, musical instrument stores know that they are competing with online vendors, free sheet music that’s only a Google search away and many other modern issues, but more
music-makers means more business for ever yone. I decided that my mission report this month should focus on band-and-orchestra instruments, as they sadly have seen a sales a decline during the COVID-19 pandemic. But I will not stop there. As you will see, your MI Spy, like only the most polished jazz musicians, has a knack for improvisation. As always, I reserve the right to steer off course and report on anything that catches my fancy.
Hunterdon Music 11 State Route 12 Flemington, NJ 08822 908.782.0620
This cozy store may not be large, but it carries an impressive inventory, especially with young students in mind. It’s well organized and jampacked with all kinds of musical instruments. And it had a small but lovely selection of windup metronomes! Ahh, the joys of a non-electric metronome, a lowtech beauty and a useful tool for
any musician. (Fear not: the store also sells electronic models.) When I stopped by, there were two women working here, and both were cheerful, down to earth and knew their stuff. The older of the two spoke to me about the allure of the windup metronomes: “People really like the motion of them, and kids do too! They’re so different from all the electronic gadgets kids are used to these days.” I also asked her about the store’s selection of plastic trombones (including a red one that was hung on the wall, high above the cash register), and she explained that “They are actually smaller than regular trombones, and are in E flat, not B flat. We have them in red, black, white and other colors. People get them to match their school colors.” I hadn’t thought about that; a colored instrument is certainly a kidfriendly way to show some school spirit. She also mentioned that a few months into the pandemic, “So many people bought guitars — at our store and others — that FEBRUARY 2021
the companies are still trying to catch up to the demand!” The shop was doing a good job on the health protocol front, with mask wearing in full effect, hand sanitizer bottles in strategic places and some humorous signs that evoked the frustrations of pandemic living. I particularly liked a poster of Beethoven that showed the master composer masked; it read “Beethoven is mad that his concert is canceled.” Hunterdon also had a rather curious electric travel guitar with a gig bag on display, offered for $299.99. The body of it was covered by the pickguard, and it featured three pickups as well. It resembled the Phantom of the Opera’s signature mask, or maybe something out of a less freaky Salvador Dali painting. If you stop by Hunterdon, don’t overlook the quaint and inviting display of quirkier instruments, such as washboards, penny whistles, ocarinas and a colorful but somewhat sophisticated xylophone in a carrying case. There is also a very impressive selection of sheet music, felt picks and accessories (who can resist trying out an assortment of conductor’s batons!?). Prices were clearly marked, and there were some fine sale items on display.
The Music Den 1030 Route 10 W. Randolph, NJ 07869 973.927.5800
With its two lengthy floors full of musical instruments of all types and an impressive selection of guitars, both electric and acoustic, The Music Den has a lot to see and purchase. But two of the most endearing displays in this store (at least in my opinion) were the flute and clarinet showcases; the instruments were organized in patterns that were so pleasing to the eye, it made you want to “ooh” and “aah” over band instruments the way guitar aficionados drool over a wall of axes. Social distancing reminders in MUSIC & SOUND RETAILER
The Music Den included fliers on the walls requesting that customers “Please Stand Two Guitar Lengths Apart. Thanks!” Mounted on the wall by the front entrance and cash registers, there was an acoustic guitar with a few dozen signatures scrawled across it. However, I didn’t recognize any of the names. “Who are these musicians?” I asked one of the workers, and he said with a smile, “People who buy a guitar here get to sign the guitar.” This is one of the coolest store traditions that I’ve come across; it elevates any paying customer to “store stardom.” The first floor features several pianos, both baby grands and uprights, new and used. (I found myself eyeing a pristine white upright as if it were a new car in a showroom.) You can browse through several stands of sheet music and music books (including a book of James Bond movie themes for the clarinet, in case you’re looking for a way to pay tribute to the recently departed Sean Connery). There is also a room devoted strictly to double basses, cellos, violins and related stringed instruments, as well as a rather curious giant accordion sculpture that had shelves with a few accordion accessories arrayed upon them. The second floor has a large assortment of guitars and basses on the walls, and many drum sets displayed on the sales floor. In addition to the drum sets, The Music Den carries a lot of percussion of all types, including cajon box drums in multiple sizes and colors (I always get a kick out of those). There is a designated acoustic stringed instrument room (now subject to limited entry for social distancing purposes). There are also several smaller rooms on the second floor for lessons and practice sessions, as well as offices, storage and restrooms. (By the way, the bathroom was rather clean, so kudos!) One of the salesmen was very
outgoing. I first saw him in the parking lot, helping to carry a large package to a woman’s car. Later, I spotted him in the electric guitar section, and we talked about the guitars that were on display. I told him that a young lady in my family plays jazz guitar, and he showed me their selection of hollow-body models. “We have a range of prices and styles. Jazz guitarists really enjoy these types,” he said. He then explained the plusses of a few models, and it was an interesting conversation. One minor complaint for store management: The print size was small on several price tags, and your MI Spy doesn’t have the greatest eyesight. In fact, my eyesight and my aim both felt a little off here. The first floor featured a step-activated handsanitizer dispenser, and when I stepped on the pedal (a drum pedal, naturally), I managed to squirt the sanitizer on my pants. Blah!
Cool Cat Music Co. 314 Bloomfield Ave., Montclair, NJ 07042 973.893.5560
Imagine walking into a musical instrument store that is like an unpretentious hipster pad: that’s what Cool Cat Music Company seemed like to me. Heck, it even had comfy chairs and an upholstered lounger in the middle of the store. I wanted to grab a guitar, stretch out and play a few hot licks, but I’ll admit that I was feeling a bit bashful. Cool Cat was established in 2018, in downtown Montclair, and has a really fine assortment of guitars, as well as other instruments. It featured a very inviting two-part window display, with drums in the left window, guitars in the right window, and a series of drawings made by children that run along the lower sections of both windows. In addition to selling new instruments, Cool Cat offers
lessons, rentals and repairs, and even has a box of freebies that’s filled with used sheet music, music magazines and similar items. The store stocks electric and acoustic guitars and basses, effects pedals and amps, ukuleles and other stringed instruments, and accessories for all of these. It also has a limited supply of drums and percussion, plus a few other instruments. The brands in stock for electric guitars included D’Angelico, Backlund, Eastwood, Rivolta, Airline and Supro, as well as Danelectro, Silvertone, Yamaha and others. I was intrigued by one electric guitar with a floral-design pickguard and sunburst staining that resembled my very first electric guitar (ah, the memories of a young MI Spy). I also checked out the banjos, mandolins and a beautiful bouzouki. There was more than a bit of decorative kitsch factor at play here, but it didn’t overwhelm the musical instrument displays. I spied a red crushed-velvetlined case that held six guitars (with space for one more), all with clearly printed price tags. Scattered here and there on the red-painted walls were pieces of art with musical themes, a few concert and show posters (including a vintage Peppermint Lounge ad for a Halloween show starring The Cramps), and photos of a few musical celebs who have visited the store, among them Johnny Marr (best known as the guitarist for The Smiths) and Lyle Lovett. While I was prowling about, I took note of the other customers in the store. There was a woman who brought in a guitar for a repair, a father and his teenage daughter who was tr ying out guitars, and one guy who was finishing up a purchase of guitar strings. How is the pandemic affecting this store? In addition to mask wearing, hand-sanitizer bottles (continued on page 44) 31
GRASSROO TS MAR KETING
ROCKING FROM THE INSIDE OUT HOW COVID-19 TAUGHT US TO LOVE OUR PARKING LOT
By Mike and Miriam Risko
Our parking lot: Pre-pandemic, it was a great place for our students and store customers to park. It’s pretty big, it’s flat, it has lots of parking spots and it’s easy to get in out of. That may not sound like much, but in a town where it’s hard to find parking, it’s actually been a pretty valuable commodity for our store. When we bought our building in 2010, we thought of it as a mere convenience. We had no idea what an important role it would play in our professional lives during a global pandemic, something we never thought we would experience. When the pandemic first hit, our parking lot just looked like an endless sea of blacktop. There were no cars in it during the 90 days we were closed. It had never before seemed more empty or like a bigger waste of space. As New York State flattened the curve and it became safer to venture outside, we were allowed to safely open our doors (with masks and social distancing), and the parking lot started to play a more important role. It became a place where we could drop purchases in customer’s trunks or social distance outside while we discussed a purchase or lesson. As spring turned into summer, the blacktop in the parking lot was heating up, and it was like a warm welcome when we would step outside our building to conduct business. The parking lot was still void of cars because most of our business continued to be virtual and New York was still fairly quiet, but it became a nice place to sit with a laptop or a cell phone and get some work done. Then one day, it dawned on us: Our parking lot is the same size as our building. The spaciousness and the flat surface in the open air could help us get back to some type of normalcy, so we could begin doing some in-person business again. We began to develop a plan to temporarily reimagine our business from the inside out. From music lessons and rock bands to musical theater, from camps to concerts, we moved everything into our new “Outdoor Education Space.” We even moved retail displays out to the parking lot during the day. Wearing masks and creating social-distance circles on the blacktop, we had the space to spread out and rock. People began to come back. Popup tents with no walls helped on 32
A curbside market featured the Ossining Booster Club as one its members.
Classes offered outdoors via Mike Risko Music’s Saturday Academy.
rainy days, although no one cared if it was raining; they just wanted to be around other people, even if they were six feet away. One of our favorite uses of the lot was participating in a Saturday Academy offered by one of our local school districts. This is a program in which the school coordinates activities for families and kids on Saturdays. It invited us to offer music classes, so we offered a rock star guitar class and a piano class. The classes met in our outside classroom once a week. It enabled multiple kids to start playing instruments, which was so welcome after the long season of being locked down at home. It enabled us to make music in a safe environment. These classes were such a great success that we began offering other group classes outside, and even expanded our offerings. Sometimes, you don’t realize that everything you are looking for is right in front of you. We had no idea what a large part our parking lot would play in our business. We have realized that, in addition to our regular business, we now can have a year-round outdoor business (with the exception of a few months of cold, since we are in New York, after all.) Realizing we had this space at our disposal was like getting an addition put on our building. It opened up so many doors and gave us new creative ideas. There have been no shortage of programs and classes to offer outside, and this newfound space has basically marketed itself by being a natural attraction for people driving by. We have even seen people stop to take pictures of bands in the lot or other unique programs that are running. We fully expect to keep this concept going, even when the pandemic is behind us, because we have really learned to rock from the inside out. FEBRUARY 2021
I N T H E T REN CHES
By Allen McBroom Herodotus (an old Greek fellow), described the horseman couriers used by the ancient Persian Empire as “… stayed neither by snow, nor rain, nor heat, not darkness from accomplishing their appointed course with all due speed.“ Skip forward about 2,000 years, and a paraphrasing of this line, “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds” has become the unofficial motto of the U.S. Postal Service, and as such, it is even inscribed on some post office facades. In 2021, “…swift completion of their appointed rounds” sounds more like a fairy tale than a plan of action for the U.S. Postal Service. We’ve all been on either the receiving end or the sending end of unprecedented postal failings of late, and if you’re doing much shipping, you’ve probably gotten more than a few emails or messages demanding to know “Where’s my stuff?” To be fair, the postal system has lost very few packages, but delivery has been delayed on a regular basis. In pre-COVID times, shipping another item would have been the best avenue for dealing with a delayed or missing package. Today, the second package could take just as long to arrive as the first one. Starkville, my town, is in the north end of Mississippi. Jackson (120 miles away) is the state capital, and is sort of in the middle of the state. If we mail a package from Starkville to a town 30 miles away, the package first goes to Jackson, and then 34
HOW TO HANDLE POSTAL WOES to the destination town (another 120 miles). In 2019, the post office pulled off this 240 miles circuitous delivery scheme pretty well. With the arrival of the pandemic, packages began being delayed. Our local post office even stopped picking up our packages for a couple of weeks during the Christmas season due to a high level of virus-related absenteeism in its office. The worst part, for us, is the Jackson postal hub has become a black hole. Packages enter, and they usually emerge, though many of them enjoy a two- tofour-week layover in Jackson before they move again. If old Herodotus was around today (he died in the fourth century BC) he would probably shake his head and recommend our post office be turned over to the Persian Empire for a revamping. We’ve all experienced what I just described in one way or another. But there are a few things we can do to ameliorate this situation. First, be prepared for the mail delay complaints. Go to usps.com, look under “Help” in the top right corner, and become very familiar with the link called “Finding Missing Mail.” The site lays out three steps, and in brief, here they are: track the package, file a help request and submit a missing mail search request. These are some of the few tools the post office provides to resolve the issue of missing mail, but so far, at least for us, submitting a missing mail search request has shaken some delayed packages loose and gotten them moving again. Next, write a personal-sounding
template that you can use when replying to your customers’ messages about delayed packages. Save it as a text file. It will save you a lot of time when you have to answer a bunch of messages each week. You’ll need to tailor the template each time you use it to fit the specific situation and add the parts you need to personalize it (like the customer’s name and some details about their complaint). We’ve gotten really good responses to these template-based replies. Here is the basic template we are using right now: Your package seems to be hung up in the Jackson, MS postal hub, which in pre-COVID times would have been unacceptable to some exponent. Your package shipped on time, went straight into the postal service, and then became delayed at the hub. This is now the state of the postal service nationwide. A year ago, our postal system was the flagship of postal efficiency worldwide. Today? No so much. Packages that used to take two or three days now routinely take 10 days to three weeks to arrive. It doesn’t seem to matter where the package originates, or what hubs it enters; the delays are the same everywhere in the country. Priority mail, which used to typically take two to three days, now takes seven to 10 days if it arrives early. I have had priority packages arrive two to three weeks after they were mailed. I know having a package delayed is frustrating for the recipient, and it’s also frustrating for us, and every other shipper in America. I talk to other retailers
every week, and we are all dealing with the same delays. Nobody has a better alternative right now. As I mentioned earlier, one thing that has helped recently is to ask the post office where your missing package is. They usually respond to these requests pretty quickly. The link to ask them where your package is can be found here: usps.com/help/ missing-mail.htm You’ll need to supply some information (I’ve provided the information for a missing package request filed from my store as an example): Your package is a 6 x 9 manila padded envelope. Your tracking number is 930012011140564XXXXXX. The shipper is a business with this address: Backstage Music, 115 Highway 12 West, Starkville, MS 39759 Filling out the form doesn’t take much time, and it usually results in jarring the package loose from whatever shelf it had been sitting on. You can also choose to get regular email updates on the progress of the package. If you’re having trouble with a delivery, file the missing mail report, since that has proven to be the best way to get the delayed mail moving. Again, there has been one bright spot in all of this: While the post office has been slower than slow in moving the mail, so far every package we’ve shipped has been delivered eventually, no matter how delayed it was. If you do any degree of package mailing outside of eBay and Amazon, look closely (continued on page 45) FEBRUARY 2021
V E D D AT O R I A L
PROOF OF CONCEPT By Dan Vedda
I recently had a conversation with a family from our local school district. Mom, dad and the kids came in because the older of the two daughters was about to start in band. (Note that this would have happened in August or September last year, so cheers for signs of band programs returning!) We did all the usual stuff: We covered the details of the rental program, talked through the care and feeding of a trumpet, and shared the excitement about playing music that had captivated not just the student, but the whole family. There was sibling debate about the best color for a music stand (because colors are important), pertinent questions about the best way to oil valves (my diplomatic answer, after showing the student, is “Whatever way your teacher suggests.”), and gratifyingly, questions from the parents about how we as a store were doing through all the trials of COVID-19. That led to a short discussion that touched on the difficulties but celebrated the saving presence of adult hobbyists who turned to music when faced with home quarantine or simply the extra time afforded by a day without two hours spent commuting. When I talked about the much-needed boost these new or resuming players gave us, the father beamed. “That’s what happened to me. I finally took up the guitar!” So we added strings to the accessories they were purchasing for the trumpet. Then they overheard a trumpet lesson going on in one of our studios. “Oh, you’re giving lessons again?” the mother asked. (To be clear, we never stopped, but MUSIC & SOUND RETAILER
went virtual through the two months the governor closed us down, and now we see about 60 percent of our students in person.) I explained the mask wearing, distancing and cleaning protocols we had in place, and they talked about their dissatisfaction with online learning. So, they also took home our lesson brochure and said they’d call about trumpet and guitar lessons in a couple of days. It helped that they could see the store was open without crowding, and that anyone they saw while they were in the store was masked and distanced. But to me, the most promising part of this visit was the parting topic. “You know,” the mom said, “I really think that in a few months, people will really enjoy going to a store for things. This has been so much fun!”
And there it is, folks. Consumers are ready — no, eager — to come back to inperson retail for the interaction; for the physical, tactile presence of desirable goods; and for the simple, efficient path to product knowledge and need fulfillment. In a nutshell, it’s fun to shop if you do it right. And while the pandemic has pushed a lot of people online out of necessity, many of them miss physical shopping, or have had enough order glitches and problems with online shopping that the honeymoon is over. Even for those less enthralled by the act of shopping, there’s a grudging agreement that dropping by a small local store and having your needs met and the product in your hand in 15 minutes has appeal. And no one will steal the package off your porch, lose it in shipping,
or pummel you with online ads for the product you just bought — or, for that matter, email you for a product review of the most mundane items. (“Yes, Home Depot, I loved the duct tape. It was life-changingly sticky.”) But there’s one caveat in this somewhat rosy outlook for the future: We must provide an enjoyable shopping experience. Longtime readers of this column may remember that I cut my teeth in retail at Sears (when it was “America’s Largest Retailer,” not the poster child for failed department stores.) I saw firsthand how corporate retail began polluting the shopping experience decades ago, cutting the sales force, foregoing training to put minimum-wage newbies on the front lines in crucial knowledge departments like hardware and cosmetics, and promoting incompetents who could game the system and cook their books to look good. Across all of retail, the shopping experience suffered as chains, then malls and finally “superstores” decimated the small, local, knowledgeable stores. The big boxes of the 1990s would still be a major force, I think, had they made their stores consistent “destination” shopping experiences, marrying huge product selection to superb displays and a stellar customer experience. But no, the draconian cheapening began, and we ended up with diminished selection, shabbier store environments or surly salespeople — or all of the above. It’s no wonder that online shopping had appeal to the shop-in-your-jammies-andbuy-it-now consumer. Across (continued on page 45) 35
S HINE A LI GHT
THE WONDERS NEVER CEASE AT HELL CREEK By Michelle Loeb When Steve Bury, a veteran of the Seattle-area music scene, and his wife Christie, a fashion marketing professional, decided to move their family to Glendive, Mont., in 2003, they knew they wanted to open a store that captured the imagination of the small town they were about to call home. “Because we are in a small town, we have to be diverse in order to make it. You can’t just be one thing,” said Steve. “The main focus was music, but we slowly incorporated other areas that weren’t in other places and combined that with our hobbies.” With that, Hell Creek Music & More was born. From the start, the “more” consisted of collectibles and comics, which have become a mainstay, according to Steve, because “there isn’t a good comic book shop in the area.” He added, “Musicians generally like comics and collectibles as well, so we sell a lot of comics and guitars at once.” In the beginning, Hell Creek 36
Music & More included the Makoshika Dinosaur Museum, a non-profit museum that included an eclectic collection of fossils and sculptures, which became part of Montana’s famed Dinosaur Trail. The museum was a part of the store for 10 years before it was donated to the county’s Frontier Gateway Museum, with the exception of the 38-foot Tyrannosaurus rex that remains as one of the store’s main attractions. “We wanted to have a curiositytype store, and for us, it was all about dinosaurs,” said Christie, who first became familiar with the town of Glendive because of her daughter’s interest in paleontology. In fact, the store got its name from the Hell Creek formation, a hotbed of paleontology that features exposed rock formations from the Cretaceous period, part of which is located one mile from the store in Makoshika State Park. “The store was named after ‘why’ we moved to Glendive, Mont.,” Christie added.
Despite those grand ambitions to have something for everybody, Hell Creek Music & More had very humble beginnings. Christie took on two part-time jobs while Steve opened the store. They purchased the building where the store is located, scraping together a first month’s payment and spending their remaining $300 on accessories from EMD Music. That, plus some acoustic guitars, amps and band-andorchestra instruments fronted to them by Steve’s former employer at Helmer’s Music, made up the whole of their inventory. “You have to do what you can with what you’ve got until you get to where you want to be,” said Steve, whose industry contacts and reputation for paying his bills at Helmer’s
Hell Creek Music & More 101 Merrill Ave. Glendive, MT 59330 (406) 377-7977 www.hellcreekmusic.com Mon.-Sat. 10 a.m.- 6 p.m. Steve and Christie Bury, Owners
Music helped the store to gain vendors in the early days. “We grew the business slowly and steadily. We never took more than we could pay back, and everything we made went right back into the store,” added Christie. “We paid for the building and the merchandise, so when the COVID-19 lockdowns happened, we didn’t have the huge overhead, and that was one less stress.” Over the years, the Bur ys added a toy section to the shop, as well as an escape room that, due to COVID-19 restrictions, FEBRUARY 2021
In addition to MI products, Hell Creek Music & More has something for everyone, including comic books and collectibles. The 38-foot T-rex is a main attraction as well.
was closed and turned into a rock and mineral shop. But 60 to 70 percent of the business is still music. Most of their music sales come from guitars, with amps, drums, keyboards, ukuleles, basses and accessories making up the rest of their offerings. If there’s anything a customer might want that Hell Creek Music & More doesn’t carry, Steve and Christie are more than happy to work with other area music stores to make sure they get what they need. “We don’t consider other stores to be our competition,” said Christie. “We network with other stores. We’re all in the same boat, and we want to help each other out.” Added Steve, “We’re not doing this for the money; we’re doing it for the customers.” Hell Creek Music & More carries a lot of limited-edition and signature guitars, including a collaboration with Sawtooth Musical instruments and the “world’s fastest shredder,” MUSIC & SOUND RETAILER
Michael Angelo Batio, which is set to come out next year. Even with such specialized inventory, the Burys make sure that nothing is priced beyond what an average customer can afford. “If you can’t afford it, we won’t let you buy it, because you have to afford it,” said Steve. “We want our customers to be happy. We don’t want them to have buyer’s remorse.” Fear of buyer’s remorse is part of the reason Hell Creek Music & More also doesn’t sell any of their products online. “There’s too much buyer’s remorse online,” said Steve. “If someone purchased a $3,000 guitar and then got mad about it and wanted to return it, after shipping and other costs, it ends up costing us money. So, we decided it wasn’t worth it.” While online sales have been a lifeline to many businesses during the pandemic, Hell Creek Music & More is getting along just fine without it. With 6,800 square feet of space, it’s
easy for customers to practice social distancing inside the store. And really, getting to see the store in person is part of the thrill of shopping at Hell Creek Music & More. “Even people who aren’t coming here to buy will stop in just to look,” said Christie. “They walk in, take five steps and just stop and look at everything we have and say, ‘Wow.’” Along with the 38-foot T-Rex, other elements of the shop incorporate a collection of music memorabilia, including guitars from KISS and Nikki Sixx, and one autographed by Def Leppard. “We are our own small Hard Rock Cafe,” said Steve. The front door features artwork by Mike Meissner, who also designed the unmissable relief sculpture that hangs from the store’s ceiling, a riff on Michaelangelo’s depiction of God creating man, but with cherubs in full KISS makeup and an 11-foot guitar that says, “God gave rock
and roll to you.” Regarding the sculpture, Christie explained that “God is creating rock and roll.” Though they remain a small operation, with Steve and Christie running the shop and their two daughters, Chantell and Cortney, occasionally coming in to help, Hell Creek Music & More is nothing if not larger than life, and the goal is to get even bigger as time goes on. “For the long term, our goal is to be very well known,” said Christie. “We don’t need to expand, but we want to be that one store everyone wants to see. We want to be a destination.” “Even though we are a small business, we don’t think small,” added Steve. “We give our customers a big musical experience, but also one that is personalized, where we get to know our customers by name and ask how they’re doing. Our philosophy is the customer comes first. And if it’s not fun, we don’t do it.” 37
U N DER T H E HOOD By Brian Berk Although 2020 saw a boost in guitar-playing interest and sales, it was a difficult year in many ways. This included the loss of perhaps the greatest guitarist of all time, Eddie Van Halen, whose singularly inventive style inspired multiple generations of
basswood body with deeper upper-body curve. The bolt-on quartersawn maple neck is carved and rolled to Eddie Van Halen’s specifications with a hand-rubbed satin urethane back finish and graphite reinforcement. The 12inch to 16-inch compound-radius
is wrapped in Aqua Burst or Black Burst. This model, available in April, also features chrome hardware and an ebony fingerboard with cream dot inlays. • The 5150 Series Standard Ebony, which boasts spotlightready style in Ice Blue Metallic or
EVH’S
Eddie Van Halen Collection players, which was a boon for MI retailers. EVH, a portfolio brand of Fender Musical Instruments Corp., is making sure Van Halen is never forgotten. The company announced a slate of new product offerings designed to honor and continue the legacy of the late Van Halen, including new models for the 5150 Series, Wolfgang Special and Wolfgang WG Standard. Engineered for speed, comfort and full-throttle attitude, the reimagined EVH 5150 Series models are a blast from the past that blend both throwback and modernized features, including the addition of a kill switch for high-velocity rock, stated the company. The 5150 Series models feature a modified Strat-style 38
fingerboard comes with 22 jumbo frets. The 5150 models also feature a heel-mount truss-rod adjustment spoke wheel, a hockey stick color-matched headstock with logo decal, EVH-branded Gotoh tuning machines, and a topmount EVH-branded Floyd Rose bridge with EVH D-Tuna and R3 locking nut. Electronics include direct-mount EVH Wolfgang bridge and neck humbucking pickups, a three-way toggle switch on the upper bout, a kill switch on the lower bout, 500K EVH Bourns Low Friction Pot volume control with treble bleed circuit, and 250K EVH Bourns High Friction Pot tone control. New EVH 5150 models include: • The 5150 Series Deluxe Poplar Burl, which features a unique poplar burl top that
Stealth Black finishes. This model also features black hardware and an ebony fingerboard with cream dot inlays. It is available now. • The 5150 Series Standard Maple, which offers a Neon Pink finish with chrome hardware. This model features a maple fingerboard with black dot inlays. It is also available now. Next up are the EVH Wolfgang Special models, designed to offer “giant sound and highspeed playability.” The Wolfgang Special models feature a basswood body and a bolt-on quartersawn maple neck carved and rolled to Eddie Van Halen’s specifications with hand-rubbed satin urethane back finish and graphite reinforcement. The 12-inch to 16-inch compoundradius fingerboard comes with
22 jumbo frets. Wolfgang Special models also feature a heel-mount truss-rod adjustment spoke wheel and a top-mount EVH-branded Floyd Rose bridge with EVH D-Tuna and R2 locking nut. Electronics include direct-mount EVH Wolfgang Alnico 2 bridge and neck humbucking pickups, a three-way toggle switch, 500K EVH Bourns Low Friction Pot volume control with treble bleed circuit, and 250K EVH Bourns High Friction Pot tone control. EVH Wolfgang Special models include: • The Wolfgang Special QM, which is spotlight-ready in Charcoal Burst or Chlorine Burst with cream body binding and chrome hardware. This model features a baked maple neck and fingerboard with black dot inlays. MD 445 It is available in March. • The Wolfgang Special, which is offered in an all-new Miami Blue finish with black body binding, a color-matched headstock and black hardware. This model also features a maple neck and ebony fingerboard with pearloid dot inlays. It is available this month. Also being released are the Wolfgang WG Standard models. These instruments feature a basswood body, baked maple neck with graphite reinforcement and hand-rubbed oil back finish, 12-inch to 16-inch compoundradius baked maple fingerboard with 22 jumbo frets and black dot inlays, a heel-mount trussrod adjustment spoke wheel, EVH-branded Floyd Rose Special bridge and R2 locking nut. Electronics include direct-mount EVH Wolfgang bridge and neck humbucking pickups, a threeway toggle switch, single volume control with treble bleed circuit, and single tone control. The Wolfgang WG Standard models, all of which are available now, include: • The Wolfgang WG Standard Exotic Bocote, which comes in a Natural finish with black headstock and black chrome hardware. Features include a bocote top and masked-off natural body binding. • The Wolfgang WG Standard Exotic Koa, which comes in a Natural finish with black headstock (continued on page 40) FEBRUARY 2021
Percussion Marketing Council
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Picks Up the Beat in 2021 Monthly giveaways, free lessons, and all-star webinars....
PMC member engagement is important to achieving these goals! Email info@PlayDrums.com or call 315-383-1028 to nd out more. The success and ongoing development of the Percussion Marketing Council is a direct result of the support and commitment from all PMC members:
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THE FINAL NOTE
(continued from page 46) (without naming them). Binder: That would have to be in Nashville after one Summer NAMM. We went out for some amazing barbeque followed by my first moonshine tasting.
Custom configure a securable, easy to use control center, four Audio, Video, & Lighting Mixers that wonʼt be an eyesorein yout House of Worship or Auditorium.
UNDER THE HOOD
(continued from page 38) and black chrome hardware. Features include a koa top and masked-off natural body binding. • The Wolfgang WG Standard QM, available in an all-new Transparent Green finish with a black headstock and black chrome hardware. Features include a quilt maple top and masked-off natural body binding. • The Wolfgang WG Standard, is decked out in Silver Sparkle or Stryker Red finishes with black headstock and black hardware. EVH tops off these new product releases with an accessory line, including new gig bags, a Frankenstein reflector kit, plus a branded skateboard, clothing, 40
collectibles and more. The EVH Star/Shark Economy Gig Bag features an EVH logo with external storage compartments and back straps; the EVH Wolfgang/Striped Series Economy Gig Bag features an EVH logo with external storage compartments and back straps; and the EVH Wolfgang/Striped Series Gig Bag features padded ends and sides, an EVH logo, external storage compartments, back straps and a side handle. The EVH Frankenstein Reflector Kit set includes four round red reflectors, two orange round reflectors and two oval orange reflectors.
The Retailer: What is the best thing about the MI industr y? Binder: Everyone in this industry has one thing in common, music, which crosses all cultural barriers and connects our careers with our passion. The Retailer: Who do you admire most outside of the music industr y and why? Binder: I admire Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph, founders of Netflix, for their ability to adapt quickly to changes in consumer behavior. While the record industry plummeted by not adapting fast enough, Netflix became game-changers in a short period of time. The Retailer: What technology could change MI down the road? Binder: If live interactions between musicians in different countries become more of a possibility through programs such as Twitch, it could open once impossible collaborations and livestreaming possibilities that weren’t possible before. In an age of increasing isolation, any technology that connects students, teachers and
musicians of all types would help our industry immensely.
The Retailer: If you weren’t in the music industr y, what would you be doing and why? Binder: Either a chef or possibly a comedy writer. In both cases, I’ve always been influenced by creativity and attention to detail, whether it be Gordon Ramsay’s amazing Beef Wellington or John Cleese’s masterful farce in “Fawlty Towers.” The Retailer: Tell us about your hometown and why you enjoy living there. Binder: I live in Santa Ana, Calif., but consider the general Los Angeles area to be my hometown. I love the fact that within 30 minutes or so in any direction, you can find one-of-a-kind restaurants, stroll down the Sunset Strip or see a world-class musician at The Baked Potato. The Retailer: What are your most prized possession(s) and why? Binder: My Mojave Peacemaker amp, which is a modern take on a Marshall Plexi. It has modern reliability with all the vintage mojo intact. The Retailer: What’s your favorite book and why? Binder: “Dune” by Frank Herbert, as it still has a lasting impression to this day and clearly inspires much of the popular sci-fi culture we now see. FEBRUARY 2021
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41
ANOTHER 21 FOR '21
(continued from page 27)
Ad Index Company
Triple Play Pg
AMAHI UKULELES................17
ARMADILLO
ENTERPRISES....................C-II
Celestion’s F12M-150 is a full-range, live response speaker, designed for use with amp modelers and IRs. Its unique design features two additional tweeter cones integrated into the main woofer cone (making it “Triple Cone”). This enables the speaker to deliver near full-range frequency performance: from 60Hz up to 12kHz, for a rich and detailed sound, whatever your setup, stated the company. It is designed with a response that is flat and neutral, ensuring no unwanted colorations that could overwhelm the input signal. But, with an optimized woofer cone and lighter moving mass, the F12M-150 is designed to closely mimic the responsiveness of a traditional guitar speaker, delivering all the tactile feel end users would expect from playing through a conventional guitar rig, added the manufacturer. celestion.com
AUSTRIAN AUDIO / GROUP
Night Ranger ONE.....................................5
CASIO....................................C-IV
CE DISTRIBUTION................23
DRUM WORKSHOP..............8
Mapex added two finishes to its Armory series. Birch/Maple/Birch Hybrid shells are appointed with an outer veneer of Olivewood, setting the stage for lacquer finishes evoking celestial, haunting tones of the night sky and the lush multicolor panorama of the rainforest, stated the company. All the features the Armory Series is known for are in place, including the SONIClear tom suspension system and floor tom feet, which increase overall resonance by preserving vibration in the shell; triple flanged hoops; and low-contact bass drum claws, the manufacturer added. mapexdrums.com/us
DRUM WORKSHOP..............9
XS Marks the Spot JJ BABBITT............................11
JMAZ LIGHTING....................6
MANHASSET SPECIALTY
COMPANY...........................3
NAMM.....................................7
D’Addario introduced XS, which the company described as a “true technological breakthrough in coated strings.” This innovation offers players maximum life, an unprecedented level of strength and stability, all without sacrificing D’Addario tone, stated the company. Setting XS apart from other strings is the new, impossibly thin film coating (1/10 the thickness of a human hair) that completely protects the wound strings from corrosion, without dampening the tone, added the manufacturer. This new film covering is combined with D’Addario’s proprietary dispersion coating, used in its XT line, to protect the plain steel strings as well. Players can now choose between XT for enhanced life and a natural feel, or XS for maximum life and a smoother feel. XS will be available in Phosphor Bronze string sets for acoustic guitar, 12-string guitar and mandolin in the most popular gauges. daddario.com
Top of Their Game PRS GUITARS.......................15
TONEWOODAMP..................C-III
While every care is taken to ensure that these listings are accurate and complete, The Music & Sound Retailer does not accept responsibility for omissions or errors.
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Crafted under high heat and pressure from 100-percent organic polymers, the GraphTech ResoMax Archtop Bridge ensures that every nuance of a prized archtop’s sound is delivered with high-definition resolution, stated the company. To guarantee a solid foundation to any archtop model, the ResoMax Archtop Bridge has flexible legs that conform to the top of the guitar. Two heights are available — standard and ultra-low — to guarantee the right fit for an archtop’s neck angle. Gold or nickel thumbwheels allow players to dial in just the right action for their playing style. Installing a ResoMax Archtop Bridge is easy, and it’s an upgrade designed to give archtop players big, open tones with rich harmonics, the company added. graphtech.com
FEBRUARY 2021
A True Classic For over 30 years, the SansAmp Classic has been used for every kind of music style, from death metal to commercial jingles, in countless pro studios, on tours around the globe, in a vast variety of major releases (including Grammy Award-winning records), and by hundreds of thousands of everyday players, producers and engineers. Put on a manufacturing hiatus in 2016, the SansAmp Classic is being reissued for 2021 due to a surge in popular demand. Virtually unchanged and still made in the USA, the all-analog SansAmp Classic pedal design is B. Andrew Barta’s unique invention that was the catalyst for the whole “going direct” movement way back in 1989. Since then, SansAmp evolved into an extensive line of pedals and racks, as well as being the essential element of Tech 21’s Fly Rig series. Of the pedal formats, SansAmp Classic is the most sophisticated. There is a bank of eight Character switches to adjust tonality, harmonics and dynamics; a three-position input switch to offer a choice of preamp styles; and four knob controls to shape preamp contours, power amp contours, volume and final tone. tech21nyc.com
Bring in the Bass KRK announced the latest addition to its range of studio gear with a new generation of powered subwoofers. Coming this spring, the new series of KRK Studio Subwoofers will be available in eight-, 10-, and 12-inch variations: S8.4, S10.4, and S12.4. The subwoofers deliver tight, accurate and defined bass, while the highly efficient Class D power amplifiers dramatically increase transient response, control and punch, stated the company. The redesigned cabinets feature a more compact profile compared to their predecessors, allowing for improved placement flexibility and a more professional aesthetic. KRK Studio Subwoofers feature XLR, 1/4-inch TRS, and RCA inputs and outputs that interface with just about any manufacturer’s studio monitors, mixers, and/or audio interfaces. With an exclusive bypass control feature, users can send full-range audio to their monitors at the click of an optional footswitch without having to move out of the monitoring sweet spot to turn off the subwoofer. This allows for instant comparisons with (and without) the subwoofer’s contributions to the sound. Additionally, polarity and input sensitivity controls allow for phase coherence and level-matching to enhance the quality of the mix. krkmusic.com
In the Bag The Music People, a division of Jam Industries USA, debuted its 4990 Series of guitar bags. The series features four models: the GBE4990CG Deluxe Electric Guitar Bag, GBB4990CG Deluxe Bass Guitar Bag, GBA4990CG Deluxe Acoustic Guitar Bag and GBC4990CG Deluxe Classical Guitar Bag. All four bags are available in Charcoal Gray. Featuring a weather-resistant 600D nylon exterior that defends against the elements, the cases feature a 20mm thick foam padding that prevents impact damage, along with a soft velvet lining that safeguards an instrument’s finish. Two accessory compartments keep picks, capos, tuners and strings within reach. Backpack-style straps enable hands-free transportation, and a cushioned top handle makes for balanced, comfortable carrying. A two-pull zipper fully opens and closes at either end or any point in between for ease of loading and unloading. Thick rubber padding on the bottom of the bag prevents damage and slipping when resting the bag upright. musicpeopleinc.com
Hey, Mr. DJ Hal Leonard presented a method to teach people how to spin music. “The Hal Leonard DJ Method” by DJ Bizzon is designed for anyone interested in learning how to successfully host recorded music for an audience at events, parties, clubs and beyond. This easy-to-use beginner’s guide features many photos and diagrams, plus nearly two hours of video lessons with full demonstrations by the author, stated the company. It serves as an introduction to the gear, skills, and must-know knowledge required of today’s DJ. Topics covered include DJ equipment and setup, using turntables, using CDJs, using DJ controllers with Serato DJ, identifying song attributes, tempo and BPM, counting bars, scratching techniques, mastering song transitions, building a set, and more. Author DJ Bizzon is a DJ, producer, teacher and radio host based out of Milwaukee. He’s opened for Kendrick Lamar, Future, Lil Uzi Vert, J. Cole, Migos, Big Sean, Khalid, Travis Scott, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Pitbull, Mac Miller, Questlove and many more. halleonard.com
MUSIC & SOUND RETAILER
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MI SPY
Let ‘Er Rip Pigtronix’s Space Rip is an analog synth pedal featuring pulse width modulated (PWM) sawtooth and square wave voices in multiple octaves. A tracking engine allows the Space Rip to keep up with the player’s fastest single-note lines, replicating both pitch and dynamics. According to the company, it sounds like tearing the fabric of spacetime in half. The pulse width of the square and sawtooth waveforms produced by the onboard VCO is kept in a state of flux, generating constant harmonic motion controlled by the Rate knob. The Sub knob adds an additional voice one octave down from the input signal, while the Octave switch drops the entire synth down an additional octave, producing a devastating amount of pure analog synth bass. Runs on standard 9VDC. pigtronix.com/pedals/space-rip
The Germinator Venues and houses of worship worried about germs spread by close contact with microphones can rest easy with the introduction of VocoPro’s Germinator UV Microphone Sanitizer, stated the company. All microphones are used in front of our mouths; people spit on them, sneeze on them and handle the microphone from the top down, stated the companmy. If the person using a microphone before you is sick, all of those germs and viruses can be passed on, sometimes for days, after the mic was last used depending on how wet the windscreen gets or the age of the windscreen used. The Germinator is a handy two-minute microphone sterilizer that uses UV rays to eliminate germs and smells from wireless and wired microphone capsules. It automatically turns on when a microphone is inserted, and an easy-to-read display shows when the mic is fully sanitized and ready for use. The Germinator is rechargeable with a USB power supply. It sanitizes up to 300 times with a single charge and provides 35 hours of standby time.
I’ll Stand by You Fender Musical Instruments Corporation released the Chrissie Hynde Telecaster, its first ever collaboration with the singer-songwriter and guitar icon. The signature model is a tribute to the Ice Blue Metallic Fender Telecaster guitar that Hynde bought in a New York City shop nearly 40 years ago. It boasts an alder body in Faded Ice Blue Metallic Road Worn lacquer finish, vintage-style ‘50s single-coil Tele pickups voiced to match Hynde’s original set and a six-stainless steel barrel saddle bridge. It features a custom mid-‘60s C-shaped maple neck, a 7.25-inch radius fingerboard and a chrome mirror pickguard. An artist-requested player-friendly update on the new Chrissie Hynde Telecaster is locking tuners, which offer increased tuning stability and make string changes quicker, stated the company. fender.com
The Real Slim Shady Chauvet released the SlimPAR Pro Pix, which takes wash and effect lighting to new heights of dynamic power, while also offering high-end, rugged features, stated the company. This powerful par is a hex-color (RGBAW +UV) wash light protected by a road-ready diecast aluminum housing. SlimPAR Pro Pix has an RGB outer ring, which can be independently controlled. This new fixture creates amazing animations and video effects with pixel control of the RGB LEDs. SlimPAR Pro Pix boasts flicker-free video operation, making it a wash light for on-camera use. This fixture is ideal for quiet installations because it has no moving parts, giving its silent operation. Other features include onboard powerCON-compatible power input/output connections for power linking. SlimPAR Pro Pix also has D-Fi USB compatibility for wireless master/ slave or DMX control. Static colors and automated programs can be controlled easily with the optional IRC-6 remote. chauvetlighting.com
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(continued from page 31) and limiting the number of customers allowed in the store at any one time, Cool Cat had a protocol which I haven’t seen elsewhere and that I certainly admired: Near the pedal display, there was a plastic crate lined with a towel, and a sign attached to it that read “Please put pedals in bin after use to be sanitized.” It’s a very careful touch. I spoke a bit with the younger guy working there about effects pedals, and he was talking up a few really nice, gently used pedals they had on display. He explained that they are careful about which used pedals they accept and sell. Prices were clearly marked on most tags and stickers, and it was easy to navigate around this store. It gives off a boutique-y feel, but the men working here certainly didn’t act snobbish.
Guitar Center 666 State Rte. 18 East Brunswick, NJ 08816 732.257.8500
This is the first time that I walked into a Guitar Center and saw a guide on how to select a ukulele. I found this cool. Yes, there are different factors to keep in mind, such as the player’s body size, tonewood and other considerations. Who woulda thunk it? Part of the reason that I found myself among the ukes was thanks to a worker here. I walked up to him and asked him a few questions about the store’s display of Grateful Dead ukuleles (they had at least three different designs). “They’re fun to play!’ he said, and he told me that in addition to being popular, they sound good. Then he caught up to two other customers who were scrutinizing various acoustic guitars. The salesman in the uke department was one of two friendly workers I encountered at this Guitar Center; the other was a young woman who was working behind the counter in the pro audio and drums section. “How’s it going?” she asked me as soon as I strolled into this area of the store. We talked about sales, and she told me about a few of the more recent Guitar Center promotions that had worked well in this branch. While those two workers were very helpful, two other floor FEBRUARY 2021
workers walked right past me and didn’t interact with me at all. One was returning a guitar to its spot on the wall that was within a foot of me; he glanced at me, but said nothing. The other also made a nanosecond of eye contact with me and then also said nothing. One thing that may have been distracting some of the workers at this Guitar Center was the mildly annoying family of a mom and two kids who were being rather loud and, quite honestly, bratty. While mom thrashed inelegantly on a drum set, the two kids were oneupping each other in loud, whiny voices that crescendoed into a stellar hissy fit from the younger kid. I noticed a few of the staff were eyeing them carefully, lest they start slapping each other silly near the expensive musical instruments. The East Brunswick GC had a good set of COVID-19 protocols in place: these included taped lines six feet apart outside on the
sidewalk (as well as indoors on the carpet), a guitar case in the front lobby with a big bottle of hand sanitizer inside, signs with safety instructions, and, in the drum section, a box filled with “Clean Demo Sticks” and another box labeled “Demo Stick Return Bin.” Throughout the store, there were laminated signs describing sanitary procedures, with a lot of “For Your Safety” and “Please Ask For Assistance” language prominently displayed. However, I didn’t see any freebie guitar picks available, which I have noticed in two other northeastern Guitar Center branches. So how was the inventory here? Quite good. Lots and lots of electric and acoustic guitars, amps and guitar accessories; lots of effects pedals; standard and electronic drums and keyboards; some exotic percussion instruments; a rather large selection of cymbals;
and a smattering of brass and woodwind instruments. There were also a few more unusual items, such as tunable mini bongos and the Chord Buddy instructional guitar piece. This branch also featured a sign about “Selecting Your Bluegrass Instrument,” which focused on mandolin, banjo and resonator. Overall, the store was well organized and appealing, the bathroom was nice, and the bulletin board by the water cooler overflowed with notices for lessons, gigs and “In Search Of” ads. There was also lots of parking. Just watch out for the skeleton seated at the ergonomically designed computer desk, guarding a big selection of speakers.
better students, and they enjoy the benefits of a well-rounded education. I hope that parents will encourage their children to learn to play musical instruments and become part of an orchestra or band so they can enjoy the pleasure of making music in a group, as part of a team. And it is never too late for any of us to
become musicians. We know the benefits to our brains and our psyches that comes from making music. And somehow, we all need to encourage live music in the venues that we frequent, rather than recorded music.
The Retailer: Anything you would like to add?
Roberts: I would like to thank everyone in the music industry that has made efforts in manufacturing protective equipment and everyone who has attempted to keep communications in our industry flowing. It really helps hearing these stories, and it makes you proud to be a part of the MI industry.
checking prices is really a timesaver, too. Say you’re shipping a four- or five- pound Priority Mail package on stamps.com. The software automatically checks its UPS pricing, and if UPS service costs less, a popup will let you know. One click changes the packages to UPS. We’ve saved quite a bit on shipping by using
stamps.com, and we’ve found that its UPS rate is usually less expensive than our great negotiated contract rate. With the recent additional postal increase, saving on shipping can really impact your bottom line. Poor old Herodotus wouldn’t record our current postal service in a favorable light. Ben Franklin,
who designed our first efficient postal service in pre-revolutionary days, would probably lose sleep over things as they are today. But, those two guys are dead, and they can’t help you. So get busy, make all the remedies you can on your end, and be a hero to your customers. Happy trails.
desire to make music is very personal and close to peoples’ hearts. Basically, we provide a way to improve peoples’ lives, reduce their stress and increase their fun. So, if we do it right in all the ways we’ve talked about, from merchandise selection to display to service, I really think that brick-and-mortar can thrive again. But it will have to be a
very specific version of brick-andmortar that is committed to being the best it can be. In the ‘90s, retailers looked at disgruntled consumers and arrogantly said, “Where else you gonna go?” We now know where they’ll go. So, consumers have a choice, and it’s our job to make it obvious they should choose us instead of the internet.
The Sale
I enjoyed traipsing around New Jersey once again, and decided to consider which store offered the best experience over some tasty
Tex-Mex snacks from an East Brunswick taqueria. Truth be told, I thought the stores were all pretty darn good. But The Music Den was the frontman of this foursome: It had a very good selection, knowledgeable staff, cool in-store traditions and offered a wide range of prices — all good things to find in an independent musical instrument shop. The two other indie stores, Hunterdon and Cool Cat, were both very good stores, but they have specific vibes, so I can’t say they’re for everyone. And the Guitar Center in East Brunswick was more than satisfactory, although I had a few minor suggestions for it to work on. All in all, this was a lovely trip through the Garden State. But, alas, I didn’t cross paths with Bruce Springsteen at any of these shops! Maybe a third trip to New Jersey will be in the cards soon? Stay tuned, MI Spy fans!
FIVE MINUTES WITH
(continued from page 29) an instrument is wonderful. My grandson is learning to play the saxophone, and to see his pleasure in being able to play songs for his family is really cool. We all need to push for the arts to get a high priority as schools go back to in-person learning. Participating in music education helps our kids become IN THE TRENCHES
(continued from page 34) at using stamps.com. This service has improved a lot in the last year, and it now offers UPS shipping as well. Yeah, I know you’ve got your own UPS account with a great negotiated rate, but stamps.com probably buys a lot more labels than you do, so they sometimes get an even better rate. The ease of VEDDATORIAL
(continued from page 35) the economy with few exceptions, the fun of shopping was a dried-out husk of what it once was. So, we now can see a bit of daylight as the pandemic hopefully fades, and we can see evidence that people want to actually shop again. Doubly good in our industry, where music-making’s customer base seems to be growing as well. But everything rides on creating MUSIC & SOUND RETAILER
1/6 VERT. a welcoming and enjoyable shopping experience. As I’ve said so many times before, we’re a shoo-in for success: We sell lots of shiny and colorful objects with the retail equivalent of sex appeal, we sell things that people don’t automatically know how to use (as opposed to, for example, book stores, where everyone coming in already knows how to read), and the
45
HOYT BINDER
THE FINAL NOTE
for one night, who would it be and why? Binder: Jimi Hendrix. It’s not just his guitar playing. It’s the fact that he had so much vibe to give, and I can’t think of anyone who’s captured that free spirit on record like he did.
The Retailer: What musician are you hoping to see play in the near future (post-pandemic)? Binder: The Marshall Tucker Band, which we were going to see in June, but that got canceled ... I’d also like to see Bela Fleck & The Flecktones, as they are always inspiring.
DIRECTOR OF SALES, HOSA TECHNOLOGY INC.
By Brian Berk The Music & Sound Retailer: Who was your greatest influence or mentor and why? Hoyt Binder: The late Lee Watkins, who hired me and taught me how to succeed in the MI industry by funneling my passion for music into relationship-driven sales. The Retailer: What was the best advice you ever received? Binder: That would also be from Lee Watkins, who told me to never forget that we sell service, not SKUs. In times like these, I can’t think of any better advice. The Retailer: What was your first experience with a musical instrument? Binder: Strumming my older brother’s electric guitar through headphones and hearing the sound of distortion, thinking it was the greatest sound I’d ever heard, even though I had no clue how to play the guitar. The Retailer: What instrument do you most enjoy playing? Binder: I enjoy writing on piano, but the guitar is the instrument that brings me joy. My favorite sound in the world is a PAF humbucker-equipped electric guitar paired with a Marshall Plexi cranked to 11. 46
The Retailer: Tell us something about yourself that others do not know or would be surprised to learn. Binder: I grew up in the country of Panama, where my parents were missionaries. I was blessed to be around an indigenous tribe called the Wounaan and learn a lot about their ancient culture. I feel a connection with anyone from Latin and South America, as there are usually many commonalities with food, music and overall culture. The Retailer: What’s your favorite activity to do when you’re not at work? Binder: Fishing with my wife. We go fishing every year to places like Sequoia, Calif., and Panguitch, Utah. The Retailer: What is the best concert you’ve ever been to? Binder: Van Halen’s final reunion show with David Lee Roth at the Hollywood Bowl on October 4, 2015. From Roth telling multiple childhood stories and thanking Eddie for all the memories to seeing Eddie happy and playing with his son on stage, it was magical. The Retailer: If you could see any musician, alive or deceased, play a concert
The Retailer: What song was most memorable for you throughout your childhood and what do you remember about it the most? Binder: My dad would occasionally play some Beach Boys. I always loved the harmonies and modulations in “I Get Around,” which always seemed to have quite a bit more packed into it than your average pop song. The Retailer: What are your favorite songs on your smartphone/iPod? Binder: That’s a tough one, but I’ll go with my top three at the moment, “Take the Highway” by the Marshall Tucker Band, “Blood and Fire” by Van Halen and “Surf’s Up” by Brian Wilson. The Retailer: What’s the most fun thing you saw/did at a NAMM Show? Binder: Meeting my childhood hero, Michael Sweet of Stryper, who was signing at a booth around the corner from ours a few years ago. It was surprising to see him right down the aisle and more surprising to have a few moments of free time to go say “hi” and shake his hand. The Retailer: If you had to select three people, past or present, to have dinner with, who would they be and what would you ask them? Binder: John Cleese, Brian Wilson and Johann Sebastian Bach. In all cases, I’d ask what the first moment of inspiration feels like and what’s their process for turning it into something larger than life. The Retailer: Tell us about your most memorable experience with an MI retailer (continued on page 40) (continued on page 45) FEBRUARY 2021
ally c i t e Magn ached! att
DEALERS GAIN NEW REVENUE! sEE What they say:
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